Pokémon GO Allows Players to Catch ‘em All in the Real World
Pokémon, Niantic, and Nintendo Collaborating on New Mobile Pokémon
Game Slated for Launch in 2016
TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Pokémon Company, Niantic, Inc., and Nintendo Co., Ltd. today
announced their collaboration on a new project for mobile devices called Pokémon
GO. This ground breaking mobile game will encourage fans to search
far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Pokémon GO
will be available for download at no charge on the App Store and Google
Play in 2016.
In the past, the Pokémon video game series has used real world locations
like the Hokkaido and Kanto regions of Japan, as well as New York and
Paris, as inspiration for its fantasy settings. In Pokémon GO,
players will be able to catch, trade, and battle in the real world by
utilizing location information. Pokémon GO’s gameplay experience
goes beyond what appears on screen as players explore their
neighborhoods, communities and the world they live in to discover
Pokémon alongside friends and other players. Junichi Masuda, game
director of the Pokémon video game series at GAME FREAK inc., will be
contributing to the project. His involvement will ensure that the fun of
Pokémon makes its way into Pokémon GO, while developing new types
of gameplay and thinking of ways to connect this project with the main
series of Pokémon video games. In-app purchases will be available in Pokémon
GO.
“Our challenge was to develop a great game for smartphone devices that
expressed the core values of Pokémon,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara,
president and CEO of The Pokémon Company. “Pokémon GO is the
answer to that challenge.”
“Pokémon GO is a wonderful combination of Niantic’s real world
gaming platform and one of the most beloved franchises in popular
culture,” said John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic, Inc. “Our
partnership with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo is an exciting step
forward in real-world gaming and using technology to help players
discover the world and people around them.”
Players will be able to enhance their Pokémon GO experience even
when they are looking away from their smartphones by using a unique
device called Pokémon GO Plus. By pressing a button on Pokémon
GO Plus, simple in-game actions like catching a Pokémon can be
performed. Developed and manufactured by Nintendo Co., Ltd., Pokémon
GO Plus will connect to smartphones via Bluetooth and by flashing
and vibrating, will notify players about events like the appearance of a
Pokémon nearby.
Pokémon GO is being developed by Niantic, Inc. Originally founded
by Google Earth co-creator John Hanke as a start-up within Google,
Niantic is known for creating Ingress, the augmented reality
mobile game which utilizes GPS technology to fuel a sci-fi story
encompassing the entire world. Ingress currently has 12 million
downloads worldwide.
About Pokémon
The Pokémon Company International, a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company
in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia and is responsible for
brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game,
the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pokémon
website. Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996, and today is one of the
most popular children’s entertainment properties in the world. For more
information, visit www.pokemon.com.
About Niantic, Inc.
Niantic, Inc. builds real world experiences that foster fun,
exploration, discovery and social interaction. Originally incubated
within Google, Niantic was founded by John Hanke, who previously helmed
the Google Geo team (including Google Maps and Google Earth) after his
start-up Keyhole was acquired by Google. The company’s real-world
adventure game Ingress has been downloaded more than 12 million times
and is played in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. For
more information on Niantic, please visit www.nianticlabs.com.
About Nintendo
The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment,
Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware
and software for its Wii U™ and Wii™ home
consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™
families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo
Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.3
billion video games and more than 680 million hardware units globally,
including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo 3DS XL™,
as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS,
Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, Super NES™,
Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™, and Wii systems.
It has also created industry icons that have become well-known household
names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™,
Zelda™, and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary,
Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as
headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For
more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.
Contacts
The Pokémon Company International
Elvin Gee, 425-229-6358
egee@pokemon.com
or
TriplePoint
PR, for The Pokémon Company International
Quinn Wageman,
415-955-8500
pokemon@triplepointpr.com
