Pokemon Go... Game

Pokemon Go is an augmented virtual reality game which works on Android and iOS operating systems. It was released in July 2016 by Nianctic. In the game the program uses the phone's global positioning system and camera to train virtual characters called Pokemon. The characters can be used to battle and conquers the rival enemies. Pokemon Go is free to download game. It is one of the most played mobile games ever. It received good praise for its augmented reality theme. Niantic and Nintendo developed the game which is played on mobile phones by players. The game involves training units and defeating the opponent as per designed rules.

The player creates the account in the game and then creates a character for himself by selecting various physical features like skin, hair, character style and dress. Once the character is finalized, it pops the player's immediate location with respect to the player's surroundings. The map displays a lot of places called PokeStops and PokeGyms. PokeStops and PokeGyms have their own features which enables the player to train or use a certain item or chose a battle location. The game is augmented reality based which means that as the player moves on the real world, the character moves in the game. As they move they encounter different Pokemons along their maps. Depending on the style of play the player an throw a PokeBall towards a Pokemon or click an image of the wild Pokemon with his mobile camera. One of the important aspects in capturing another Pokemon would correct timing, correct force and using the correct ball. The game has two types of currencies called stardust and candies. Depending on the success rate of the player the players gets both the currencies which in turn can be used to strengthen the character. The objective of the game is to capture and evolve the original 151 Pokemon. Players gain points, currencies based on their skill and how they successfully complete the objectives. The players use their skills to protect their strongholds called Pokegyms which changes hands if a rival Pokemon wins the Gym fight. The level and power of a Pokemon is always displayed which indicates about the power level of the character.

The concept for Pokemon Go was developed in 2014 by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company along with Google. Crowd-source data was used to fill in the Pokestops and Pokegyms. The game soundtrack and visual design were finalized by 2016 and Nianctic completed its beta testing worldwide by June 2016. The Nianctic confirmed that they would continue to upgrade and advance the game for a long time. The game was finally released in July 2016 to a worldwide overwhelming response. The game was launched in United States, Australia and New Zealand and then after some time in other European countries. After that the game was made available in a lot of Asian countries like Indonesia, China, Afghanistan, Korea. The commercial success and response that Pokemon Go received from the players was gigantic. Stocks of the parent company surged and the turnover for the company reached a whopping 6 billion dollars. However later the stocks corrected as per required investor information. The download server suffered a lot of outages and during the first two days a lot of account were inaccessible. As the company kept working through the time to resolve the issues ,steadily the download server were up and running. The server suffered huge outages in European countries.

The game received fairly good ratings and reviews from the audiences. Players described that game playing experience was enjoyable and the unique augmented reality feature turns the game in a real life enjoyable experience. The game was described as an exiting social experience. The game generated more than $100 million in in game purchases revenues and was an instant hit on a plethora of social networking sites. National parks in the United States gained huge visitors due to the game with people visiting the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. following Pokémon Go's release. It was hoped that the app would be released in Brazil before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics in the city. The game bacame really popular in United States and United States presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump mentioned Pokemon Go in their election campaigns. The game has been credited for popularizing augmented reality. The game developed a massive fan-base instantly. The game helped bring multicultural people together. Another effect of the game was businesses benefited due to influx of people near specially created Pokestops.