Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO is a free-to-play mobile application developed by Niantic for and  devices. The game was initially released in July 2016.

Game premise
Following premise is stated by game creators: With Pokémon GO, you'll discover Pokémon in a whole new world—your own! Pokémon GO will use real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. The Pokémon video game series has used real-world locations such as the Hokkaido and Kanto regions of Japan, New York, and Paris as inspiration for the fantasy settings in which its games take place. Now the real world will be the setting! The Pokémon video game series has always valued open and social experiences, such as connecting with other players to enjoy trading and battling Pokémon. 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.

Gameplay
In Pokémon GO, players catch various Pokémon, evolve them using candies, and power-up them in order to take control of Gyms for their chosen team. These Pokémon are mapped to locations in the real world using GPS technology. PokéStops located at various real-world landmarks aid in this by distributing items for use in catching and battling with Pokémon.

The two most recognizable screens of the game are Map View and Wild Pokémon Encounter Screen.

Map View
The Map View is essentially the main screen of the game; following the initial loading screen. Most of the game elements are accessible from this screen.

Main Menu
The Main Menu of the game is accessible from the Map View and allows player to enter such game elements, as:
 * White Button Pokemon.png collection of Pokémon and Pokémon Eggs
 * White Button Shop.png in-game Shop
 * White Button Pokédex.png Pokédex
 * White Button Bag.png Bag with Items
 * White Button Battle.png Battle page with access to Trainer Battles, GO Battle League and Battle Party.

It also lets player to go to:
 * Button Settings.png game settings screen
 * Button Tips.png check out Tips
 * Button News.png in-game News and Notifications
 * Button Events.png ticketed events information, redirects to the external page which can be only accessed from the game itself

Trainer setup
Trainer setup (also called Intro or Tutorial) is the part of the game, where Professor Willow introduces himself and shows the basic game mechanics and elements to beginner player.

Once player agrees to Terms of Service, Professor Willow appears on the screen and introduces himself, after that player can set their avatar's style and appearance. After finishing avatar customisation, Professor Willow appears again and prompts Trainer to select a Starter Pokémon.

After successful capture of Starter Pokémon, Professor Willow will ask player for their Trainer nickname which they have to set. Then, Professor Willow introduces PokéStops and gives suggestion to visit one.

After reaching Level 5 and tapping on Gym, Professor Willow introduces his assistants – Team Leaders, which introduce themselves and their respective Teams. Trainer has to choose Team, which they want to be affiliated with. After selecting Team, Trainer setup is considered done.

Once Trainer reaches further Levels, more Items and game features are unlocked. Each of these features are properly introduced to Trainer, including Trainer Battles, GO Battle League and battling Team GO Rocket members.

Game elements
Below there is a full list of major game elements and mechanics in Pokémon GO.

Game settings
In game settings screen there are plenty of togglable options for player.

In-game tips
There are few basic game Tips from Professor Willow available at any time from game Main Menu.

In-game news
Despite social media channels, creators of the game inform players about updates and news about events and releases of new Pokémon within the game itself with News feature.

It has been introduced to the game after main release of Johto-region Pokémon in February, 2017 and its functionality was simple banner with short description available one at the time.

It was later reworked to display more than one news update at time in early February, 2018 and it is split into two tabs – News and Notifications. The second one displays notifications similar to entries in Journal, however they are not action of the Trainer themselves but Trainer's Friends and Pokémon deployed in Gyms.

Publisher information screen
After the game is launched, the very first thing that is seen by player is white screen with logo of Niantic and The Pokémon Company.



Loading screen
The loading screen (or splash screen) is the first thing players see while logging into the game&mdash;following the developer and publisher information screens. It is changed from time to time and may represent newly added game feature or ongoing event.

Augmented reality
Augmented reality is a core aspect of Pokémon GO that helps the game to connect and interact with player's world. With augmented reality, game places Pokémon into player's surrounding environment.

Augmented reality requires camera permission granted to Pokémon GO app and it also uses the gyroscope sensors to asses position of player's mobile device.

If player's mobile device does not have gyroscope or it is working faulty, augmented reality can be still accessed, however the experience of it is reduced with the Pokémon appearing in static position and only its background is using feed from camera.

AR Plus also named Niantic AR, is an enhanced version of game's augmented reality feature in which Pokémon appear anchored to a Trainer's real-world environment.

While playing the game on Android device, AR Plus feature requires Google Play Services for AR (previously named AR Core) installed.

Warnings
After player logs in to the game, there is a warning screen displayed with an icon and one of few warning notices.

Speed limit
As of December 2016, there are 3 distinct ways that Niantic posts limits on how fast Trainer may travel:
 * If Trainer exceeds the speed limit, it zeroes out any progress that they have made in the last time window. This speed limit is 17.8 km per hour.
 * The max distance per minute Trainer may travel is 175m. This translates to a top sustained speed of 10.46 km per hour.
 * Any disruption to the game may discard any progress Trainer has made in the last time window. Disruptions include losing GPS signal, getting a phone call, switching apps, the game crashing, losing wireless connection, and other disruptions. However, in case of switching apps and getting phone calls, this progress loss might be prevented with Adventure Sync feature activated.

Screen top notices
Most of errors and issues in Pokémon GO are displayed with a significant error message at the top of the screen. These error notices are displayed as red bars with short white text in it. They also include error code in round brackets.

Common error messages are:
 * Error. (0)
 * Network error. (2)
 * No Internet Connection. (10)
 * GPS signal not found. (11)

At sometimes, these error messages happen to be problematic in terms of using any user interface elements, such as buttons, that are located at the top of the screen, as they are being covered by the error message and thus inaccessible.

With ''No Internet Connection. (10)'' error, player cannot use any element of the game, as the whole game interaction is frozen until the game reconnects with network. In case of ''GPS signal not found. (11)'' error, most of user interface is still available for player, but elements that appear on the map, including Pokémon, PokéStops, Gyms and Team GO Rocket Balloons cannot be accessed as game cannot assess player's current location.

Third-party software
According to Pokémon GO Terms of Service, using third-party apps or software that would change the gameplay are strictly prohibited and may cause player to get banned – Violating the Terms of Service

If any third-party software that tries to alter the game client is detected, the warning will be displayed to inform player about consequences.

Niantic uses a Three-Strike Discipline Policy to maintain friendly and fair gameplay experience for all players.

According to the Three-Strike Discipline Policy, there are three degrees of the penalty for Terms of Service offendants, such as cheaters, spoofers and exploiters.
 * First strike: Warning
 * Second strike: Temporal Account Suspension
 * Third strike: Permanent Account Termination

Game accessories

 * Pokémon GO Plus – small device that allows players to capture Pokémon while on the move without having to interact with their phone. The device connects to the player's smartphone wirelessly using Bluetooth LE. The device notifies the player about events in the game — such as nearby Pokémon.
 * Poké Ball Plus – small device that operates similarly to the Pokémon GO Plus. It is also controller for the Pokémon Let's Go games.
 * Pokémon GO Plus+ – unreleased version of Pokémon GO Plus with similar features. Additionally it will gather and transfer sleep data to the Pokémon Sleep app.

Game connectivity
Pokémon GO can be connected to other Pokémon related games, including:
 * Pokémon Let's Go – Pokémon captured in Pokémon GO can be one-way transferred to Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu! or Let's Go Eevee! with adittional Trainer XP and Mystery Box unlocked in Pokémon GO.
 * Pokémon HOME – it was announced that Pokémon captured in Pokémon GO could be one-way transferred to Pokémon HOME, however this features has not been released yet.
 * Pokémon Sleep – it currently unknown what connection if any will be supported between Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sleep, however both of these game apps will be sharing connectivity with Pokémon GO Plus+.

Easter Eggs
In Pokémon GO, there are a plenty of Easter Eggs referring to the Pokémon games from main series.

Release and development
The game first announcement is date for September, 2015, then the game was released in July, 2016 and is under ongoing development up to day.

Game creators


Pokémon GO is 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 that utilizes GPS technology to fuel a sci-fi story encompassing the entire world. Ingress currently has 12 million downloads worldwide.

Furthermore, Junichi Masuda of Game Freak Inc., the game director of the Pokémon video game series, is also contributing to the project.

Niantic, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co. Ltd. all contribute to the Pokémon GO project. The community manager Liz George is responsible for community outreach and oversees public relations.

Game concept
Below there are various concept arts, tests and initial development phases of Pokémon GO from a presentation that was published.

As stated by Niantic, artwork featuring Mewtwo standing on the small isle was the first piece of concept art for the Pokémon GO.

As seen on the first Map View concept arts, the building structures would be higher and the sky was more immersive with more scenic representation of time of the day. On the other hand, other Map View concept designs viewed flat building structures and more vivid green areas (such as parks) with round bush models.

Game announcement and press releases
Game was firstly announced on September, 2015, the project Pokémon GO was announced by Niantic Labs, and The Pokémon Company. At the same time the initial trailer of the game was released.

Following questions were answered during the press conference with Niantic and Nintendo. Q: How are Pokémon going to appear and how are you going to catch them, game mechanics-wise? A: So, I’m not so sure how many people here have played Ingress and the [main series] Pokémon games, but if there are anyone in the audience who’ve played both games, you might get a better idea of what it’s like. On your mobile device you’ll have a map, and on that map Pokémon will appear. You’ll go there, you’ll encounter them, and you’ll try to catch them. Whether you’re able to do that or not — there’s a variety of factors. And then of course you can use those Pokémon to battle other players. It’s very similar to the concepts that were shown in the trailer. Q: Won’t this game compete with the traditional games? A: This is obviously something we discussed in great length with Nintendo, and we needed to make sure the games won’t cannibalize one another — to use one expression. So after a long discussion, we found a way to make this game fit with smartphones, which so many people have. At the same time, have it so its not competing or cannibalize the sales of the traditional games, but rather augmenting and putting strength into those sales as well. Q: Will this be Free-to-play or pay to download? A: The business model is called “Free-to-start.” You can download the app for free, and there will be purchases available in the app. Q: What Languages or regions will this be available for? A: In terms of regions, we’re planning on a world-wide release of the game. As far as languages, the main games support a wide-range of languages already. We’re working to include as many languages as we can. Q: So in terms of where the Pokémon are going to appear in the world, is that mainly going to be based off of what Ingress uses? For example, in Ingress you’ll get [unclear] where a lot of people show up, but also have certain in-game stuff on the tip of Mt. Fuji. But considering this game is going to be played by kids as well, will there be attention to where people go? Will there be water Pokémon near the water, for example? What are you planning for that? A: So first, that was one of the biggest topics we discussed at length when we first started this project. Where would Pokémon appear, where will we have people go? Of course there are issues where we don’t want people going into traffic, for example. So this is something we considered very heavily when developing the game. Ingress has been going on for quite some time now. I think people have been playing for 3 years now, and it’s definitely shown a lot of results. We have a lot of data and learning that we’ve gotten from Ninantic that we were really able to use to come up with ideas—ways to place the Pokémon, ways to use the data from Ingress, in a way that’s safe for the players. Q: Are Pokémon GO and Ingress going to be a separate world from one another? Will Pokémon GO affect the world of Ingress? A: It’s its own independent world. But we expect the communities to do things together, and for many people in the Ingress community to embrace this game as well. But they are separate worlds. Q: I saw a lot in the video about catching Pokémon, but how is the battling of the game going to work? A: So in terms of how the battles are going to work… In Ingress, there are Portals a player can either defend or attack. In this game, I can’t say very much, but imagine that these portals are instead a secret base or perhaps there is Pokémon there — and maybe there is some reason to battle them. Q: Pokémon is known quite a bit for raising and training Pokémon as well. Is there going to be any of these elements in Pokémon GO? A: In terms of, for example, Pokémon trading. That’s something we really put a lot of care into all of our Pokémon games. In the video, you saw a little of that came out as well. We’re trying to envision what players will want to do in the game, and considering this game [unclear] connected to a server, we’re hard at work coming up with ideas on how to facilitate that best. Q: You mentioned a few times in the conference that the late Mr. Iwata was involved in this project. What do you think his thoughts of this project were, in your words? A: So in our discussions of how Pokémon could really work on smartphones and mobile devices, one of the things that always came up is that we needed to do a new type of gameplay that had never been done before. And I think we really found that with this project. This may sound pretentious, but by adding this element of the location based data to the gameplay of Pokémon really will take it to a new dimension and the next level. And I think this will be a new stage for games. Q: You mentioned there will be in-app purchases, which we’ve seen in a lot of games. Players with more economic power—players with more money—are able to spend their way to be able to win. How are you planning on tackling [in-app purchases] and what sorts of in-app purchases are you going to offer? A: So this is actually one of the things we’re most hotly debating at this moment. Of course, the direction that we’re trying to take is the model in which players—we’ll have a lot of players making purchases but they don’t have to spend a lot. That’s what we’re trying to do, instead of focusing on a small group buying a lot. So I’m not able to speak to any of the specifics right here and now, but the main idea is… well, there are games out there that focus on getting a lot of money from a very small group. I can say that we’re trying to do the very opposite of that. That’s the direction we’re trying to take. Q: For the Pokémon GO Plus, what price-point are you guys thinking of offering? My other question is, how big of difference will there be between players who play with the Pokémon GO Plus and players who just play on their smartphones? What other functionality does it offer? A: So in terms of the price-point, I obviously can’t say the exact number right now, but we’re hard at work with Nintendo trying to offer it at a price that people find attractive. To your question of the difference between players who have it and players who don’t: right now we’re not planning on implementing a ton of extra functionality, so there’s not going to be a massive difference in what you can do with the device and without. Of course we really want to make a product that players who have it will feel like they are getting an added benefit. But at the same time we don’t want to make players without it feel like they are missing out dramatically on something.

Later on, Niantic CEO was going to present details and demonstrate Pokémon GO during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March, 2016.

The description said: "Attendees will get a first-hand, in-depth look at how players are interacting and exploring the world with one another through Pokemon GO, the collaborative approach to design and development for the game and the next evolution of augmented reality and real-world mobile gameplay experiences.".

Unfortunately this was cancelled on March, 2016, with the following explanation: "We have decided to forego our GDC talk on Pokemon Go in order to focus on getting the product ready for beta test and launch. As much as we hate to disappoint those in the industry attending GDC, we feel our time and energy right now are best spent on making sure every aspect of the product is where we want it to be."

On March, 2016, at , some footage of gameplay at its early stage was shown. It is noticeable that this footage differed a lot from the game on the day of its launch.

Closed beta release
The game went into closed beta release. It was released for a field test in a different countries around the world.
 * March, 2016 -
 * April, 2016 - and
 * May, 2016 -

On June, 2016, the game was showcased by Nintendo at 2016. The game interface during the showcase was different than the one seen with the game official release, mainly regarding Map View and Pokémon encounter screen.

During the field testing of the game there were several version updates released for testers. Between the first closed-beta game version and the first public game version, there were diametrical changes to an UI and UX of the game as well as for some other game features such as initially planned "crystal shards" which were replaced with candy and stardust.

The closed beta finished on June for all locations.

Official game release and availability
Pokémon GO first launched on July, 2016 in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Due to server issues further releases to other countries were delated.

At this time, Pokémon GO has been released in all countries with access to the iOS App Store or Google Play Store, except for Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, mainland China, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Congo, Angola, and Zimbabwe.

The game was released in following countries:
 * July, 2016  - Released in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
 * July, 2016  - Released in Germany.
 * July, 2016 - Released in the United Kingdom.
 * July, 2016 - Released in Italy, Portugal and Spain.
 * July, 2016 - Released in 26 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
 * July, 2016 - Released in Canada.
 * July, 2016 - Released in Puerto Rico.
 * July, 2016 - Released in Japan. (due to technical difficulties and an increasingly unhappy consumer base, Niantic released a video statement)
 * July, 2016 - Released in France.
 * July, 2016 - Released in Hong Kong.
 * August, 2016 - Released in the Latin America countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.
 * August, 2016 - Released in countries and regions across Asia and Oceania: Aruba, Brunei, Cambodia, Curaçao, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, Turks and Caicos Islands and Vietnam.
 * September, 2016 - Released in Albania, Bosnia and Herezgovina, Macau, Macedonia and Serbia.
 * September, 2016 - Released in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
 * October, 2016 - Released in Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maruitania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
 * November, 2016 - Released in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.
 * December, 2016 - Released in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
 * January, 2017 - Released in South Korea.
 * September, 2018 - Released in Russia.

Updates
Just like many other online games these days, Pokémon GO, since the release of the game had numerous updates both client side - updates of game client on players' mobile devices and server side - updates of available content such as Pokémon, events and eggs.

Technical issues
In game there were and still are several glitches, bug and issues. Most of them have gone down in history but there are also several known issues, that the game creators are currently working on.

Regions
Unlike most of Pokémon games, Pokémon GO is not a part of any particular generation (although in some communities it is considered to be a part of either Generation VII or VIII). When releasing new Pokémon to the gameplay, game publishers use term regions, as for example "Pokémon originally discovered in Hoenn region" or "Pokémon known from Johto region".

In original Pokémon games, regions were organized areas of the Pokémon world known from previous games about Pokémon such as games from core series. In Pokémon GO there are currently seven regions referred, which are Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Alola and Galar.

Events
There have been various events in game that had positive impact to the gameplay. During events certain features of the game were changed to grant players with extra bonuses such as double amount of gained candies, XP and stardust. First, historical event in Pokémon GO was Halloween event in 2016.

There were several reoccurring events that happened for seasonal occasions such as Eggstravaganza, Halloween or Holiday. There are also more frequent events such as Community Days and Nest migrations. Apart from seasonal events there were also unique events that happened just once.

Game anniversaries
Pokémon GO had already four anniversaries &mdash; in July 2017, July 2018, July 2019 and July 2020. All of them were celebrated with certain events such as Pokémon GO Fest.

Device compatibility
There are few technical requirements that devices have to met to be compatible with the game.

Devices with Android
Following requirements apply to all smartphones, "phablets" and tablets running on Android operating system:
 * Android 5 or later;
 * Preferred resolution of 720×1280 pixels (not optimized for tablet);
 * Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G);
 * GPS and Location Services.
 * AR+ support for various devices that are running Android 8.0 or later. See Supported Devices | ARCore | Developers for more info.

Rooted devices are not supported.

Devices with iOS
Following requirements apply to iPhones and iPads running on iOS:
 * iPhone 5s or later,
 * The iPhone 5c, although newer than the iPhone 5s, is not supported;
 * iOS 10 or later,
 * Devices need to be capable of running iOS 11 as this is the preferred OS version;
 * Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G);
 * GPS and Location Services.
 * AR+ support for iPhone SE or later and iPad 5th generation or later. See: iOS - Augmented Reality - Apple for more info.

Jailbroken devices are not supported.

Apple Watch
On September 7, 2016, John Hanke revealed the Pokémon GO Apple Watch app for watchOS 3 at Apple's fall keynote event. Pokémon GO was also available for Apple Watch of Series 2 and later, that are running on watchOS. On June 1, 2019, Niantic announced that it will be discontinuing support for Apple Watch devices after July. All the supporting code for the Apple Watch was removed in version 0.147.0. Niantic's decision to drop support comes ahead of the expected unveiling of watchOS 6.

Niantic's recommendations
As it is stated on official support page for the game, for an optimal Pokémon GO experience, it is recommended to use phones with 2GB or more of RAM.

If the device is experiencing issues such as frequent crashing or lagging while playing Pokémon GO, these are recommended troubleshooting steps:
 * Closing other open applications while playing Pokémon GO
 * Making sure that the device is running the latest operating system

Game promotion
Pokémon GO has been promoted in several ways with different media, including: Pokémon GO official social media channels, official sponsor- and partnerships with different brands and even posters and banners around cities that would promote events and new features to the game.

Sponsorship
Pokémon GO has made a couple of partnership deals with various brands across last four years. The most notable brands that were in such sponsorship with Pokémon GO, were:, , and. Partner brands would differ across different countries and regions of the world.

Promotional pictures
Most common way of promoting and advertising of Pokémon GO new features and events are promo banners and feature previews that are mainly published on game's official social media channels – Facebook official fanpage and Twitter official account, and also official game blog.

Trailers
Pokémon GO, its features and in-game events have been also promoted with various teasers, trailers and clips. Some of them would include actual gameplay or preview of features, while others had more commercial and artistic touch to it with cinematic style trailers released on Pokémon GO YouTube channel. These sort of higher quality trailers were mainly teasing major feature updates to the game, such as release of new Pokémon from different regions.

Game preview videos
Before the game's initial release, there were a couple of videos with announcements of game release and previews of it including various press conferences.

Trivia

 * As seen on the pre-release screenshots, during the beta testing of the game there were following game features that were scrapped from the public release of the game:
 * There were no Candy nor Stardust resources. Instead, Pokémon would require Evolution Shards to evolve.
 * Pokémon Transfer was called Release instead.
 * There would be an option to use AR during the Gym Battle.
 * Starting with 2nd Anniversary, each anniversary key artwork teases Starter Pokémon from the region that had been not released to the Pokémon GO by the time in which the anniversary happened.

Official download

 * Google Play Store
 * iTunes App Store

Pokémon GO