Pokémon GO is Actually Happening, More Details Revealed

<p>Augmented reality has had a resurgence due to popular games like <em>Ingress<&sol;em> that used the world as its playing field&period; It was only a matter of time before someone had the idea of Pokémon being applied to a similar concept&period; <em>Pokémon GO<&sol;em> is that concept come to life&comma; and <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;pokemon&period;com&sol;us&sol;pokemon-news&sol;news-from-the-pokemon-go-announcement&sol;">while we&&num;8217&semi;ve known about its existence for a while<&sol;a>&comma; there are now plenty of details about how the game will operate and what players can expect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As known prior to this detailed breakdown&comma; Niantic&comma; Inc&period; &lpar;formerly known as Niantic Labs&rpar; will be handing the development of the game &lpar;the same studio responsible for <em>Ingress<&sol;em>&rpar;&period; Smartphone users will be able to walk around the world and catch Pokémon using only their phone&period; Of course&comma; some Pokémon will only be located near certain areas such as water-type Pokémon near a lake or ocean&period; I hope that means I can only find a Snorlax blocking a path that is crucial to get through&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;102666" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-102666" style&equals;"width&colon; 578px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-102666" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;screenshot-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pokémon GO" width&equals;"578" height&equals;"327" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-102666" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Pokémon GO&comma; The Pokémon Company&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>You will also be able to find items such as new types of Pokéballs at specific landmarks&period; These locations are called PokéStops and can range from monuments to art installations to historical landmarks&period; PokéStops will also sometimes contain Pokémon eggs that players can hatch after they&&num;8217&semi;ve walked a certain distance&period; It seems like there is no real economy in <em>Pokémon GO<&sol;em>&comma; meaning if you find items at a PokéStop&comma; you can probably just take them with no hassle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No details were given on how much battling users will have to do&comma; but gym battles were at least confirmed to exist&period; Players can join one of three teams after a certain point in the game &lpar;no details were given on when this is&rpar;&comma; and then place Pokémon in gym locations to fight battle-ready trainers&period; If your team does not control the gym&comma; you will be able to compete against the gym to try and take control&period; This is an interesting dynamic&comma; but my curiosity now comes in other factors such as if there is a leveling system for Pokémon&comma; how training a Pokémon will operate&comma; and whether there will be rewards besides owning the gym&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once again&comma; while combat wasn&&num;8217&semi;t really detailed&comma; there will be challenges that players can complete&period; No examples were given&comma; but it suggested exploration and catching Pokémon would be types of challenges available&period; The reward for completing these will be achievement medals for your profile&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102665" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;pokegobago&period;png" alt&equals;"Pokemon GO Plus" width&equals;"578" height&equals;"240" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A device is being built specifically for <em>Pokémon GO<&sol;em>&comma; called the Pokémon GO Plus which will notify players whether certain events are nearby&period; It connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth&comma; and will vibrate when an event such as a Pokémon nearby is happening&period; It looks like you might not even have to pull out your smartphone when certain events are happening&comma; and can instead just press a button on the device to complete an action like throwing a Pokéball&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I still have some questions over <em>Pokémon GO<&sol;em> and its data usage &&num;8211&semi; if its similar to <em>Ingress<&sol;em>&comma; a quick Google search implies around 250 MB a month for a couple hours of usage a day&period; But I&&num;8217&semi;m wondering how much more intensive <em>Pokémon GO <&sol;em>will be&period; <em>Ingress <&sol;em>was not a proven IP&comma; while Pokémon is very much one&comma; so they could arguably get away with more data usage&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m also just really curious about how the entire battling-side of things will function&comma; because there hasn&&num;8217&semi;t been much information regarding it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hopefully more details will be answered in the coming months&comma; but currently <em>Pokémon GO <&sol;em>is being tested out in Japan only for iPhones and Android devices&period; When it launches it will be free on the App Store and Google Play&comma; but will also contain in-app purchases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;pokemon&period;com&sol;us&sol;pokemon-video-games&sol;pokemon-go&sol;">The Pokémon Company<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;