TL;DR
On the heels of the announcement on March 4th, 2016, NianticLabs has released the beta version of its Augmented reality gaming experience, Pokemon Go, to a select group of testers in Japan, which is expected to change the Gaming and AR industries forever.
Following the announcement on March 4th, 2016, NianticLabs has released the beta version of its Augmented reality gaming experience, Pokemon Go, to a select group of testers in Japan.
If you haven’t been following any of the news coming out of formerly Google’s NianticLabs, you’ve missed out on some of the most amazing developments to ever hit Augmented Reality gaming or even the entire Gaming Industry. Pokemon Go was first conceptualized in early 2013 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo. After the tremendous success of the groundbreaking game of the same genre Ingress by Niantic Labs, Nintendo used this as a proof-of-concept and proceeded with the development of Pokemon Go in partnership with Niantic Labs and Google.
Pokemon Go takes the global phenomenon that is the Pokémon Universe and combines it with the Real World to give users an immersive reality-based experience. Armed with a smartphone of your choice (and preferably a power bank), you can step out onto the streets as a Trainer and begin your journey towards becoming a Pokemon Master.
The smartphone app will be accompanied by a Bluetooth-based wearable device that’ll act as a guide of sorts indicating wild Pokémon nearby, battle-ready trainers and many more features. Early screenshots and gameplay grabs show following the Official Trailer released in 2015 that the game will be set geographically accurate to the Pokémon Extended Universe, meaning that the possibilities are (no pun intended) virtually endless.
Take a stroll through the park and encounter a Wild Rattata or a Zubat. Walk around the city to find a Meowth or a Wild Pikachu!
A trek through the forests and you might find yourselves a few Wild grass-type pokemon or maybe a Venusaur!
Or, you’re hiking to the top of Mauna Kea or being adventurous visiting Turkmenistan’s Door to Hell, you might just come across an elusive Charizard or even a massive Groudon!
Possibilities are endless! But you’ll have to wait for quite some time to be able to get even a Beta invite to try the game out yourself as the game is in Active development and early estimates place the release sometime in 2017 for both the Android and iOS platforms.
