It hasn't taken long for Nintendo to make good on its mobile games promises. Pokemon Go is from a collaboration between The Pokemon Company, Ninty and Ingress devs Niantic and means we can catch Pokemon in the real world. You didn't want to get to that meeting on time, did you?
The free to play - or free to start as Nintendo likes to call it - Pokemon Go will be playable on iOS and Android next year and the team at Niantic has been working on it for two years. If you haven't heard of Niantic, it was founded by John Hanke who just happened to be part of the initial team who made Google Maps. No mean feat.
Using local data, Pokemon Go means we can hunt for the evolving critters all over the world, trade with other Pokemon Trainers and, of course, battle. “Our challenge was to develop a great game for smart phone devices that expressed the core values of Pokémon,” says president and CEO of The Pokémon Company Tsunekazu Ishihara. “Pokémon Go is the answer to that challenge.”
Not only can we catch Pokemon in the real world, there's even a Bluetooth peripheral that gives you an, ahem, 'real' Pokeball to snare them. Crafted by Nintendo, The Pokemon Go Plus bracelet has a button to press that means you can quickly capture Pokemon and vibrates and lights up to let you know when one is near. This sounds like a serious risk if you're on your way somewhere and discover a real life side mission.
Take a look at the frankly inspirational trailer above and fear for the micro-transactions to come. Hopefully we won't need to go into any long grass. I hear you can get ticks.
Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!
