Pokémon GO is an upcoming augmented reality game for mobile phones developed by Niantic, scheduled to be released in 2016 for iOS and Android devices.[1] The game will be released alongside the Pokémon Go Plus, a small wearable device developed by Nintendo, which uses a Bluetooth connection to notify users when a Pokémon is nearby with a LED and a light rumble.[2] The game will allow players to capture, battle, train and trade virtual Pokémon who appear throughout the real world.[2] The game will be free-to-play, although it will support in-app purchases.[3]
The idea for the game was conceived in 2013 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company. In 2015, Ishihara dedicated his speech at the game's announcement on September 10 to Iwata, who died two months earlier.[4] Ishihara and his wife had played Ingress. Different Pokemon will live in different areas of the world - for example, water type Pokemon will live near water. There will be events held where players can trade Pokemon to build up their collection. A wristband device called the "Pokémon Go Plus" will ship with the game, to allow a more "heads-up" gaming experience than Ingress, where the player can be alerted to a nearby pokemon by the Go Plus vibrating, press the button in a coded sequence to capture it and check the app later to find out what they've captured.[5] The decision to create the Go Plus rather than create a smart watch app was to increase uptake among players for whom a smart watch is prohibitively expensive.[6]
