Pokémon GO/Development and release

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

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.

Game creators

Main article: Niantic

Main article: The Pokémon Company

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 9^th, 2015, the project Pokémon GO was announced by Niantic Labs, Nintendo 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 John Hanke was going to present details and demonstrate Pokémon GO during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 14^th, 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 3^rd, 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 19^th, 2016, at SXSW, 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 29^th, 2016 - Japan
• April 25^th, 2016 - Australia and New Zealand
• May 25^th, 2016 - USA

On June 16^th, 2016, the game was showcased by Nintendo at Electronic Entertainment Expo 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 30^th for all locations.

Official game release and availability

Pokémon GO first launched on July 6^th, 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, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, mainland China, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Congo, Angola, and Zimbabwe.

The game was released in following countries:

• July 6^th, 2016 - Released in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
• July 13^th, 2016 - Released in Germany.
• July 14^th, 2016 - Released in the United Kingdom.
• July 15^th, 2016 - Released in Italy, Portugal and Spain.
• July 16^th, 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 17^th, 2016 - Released in Canada.
• July 19^th, 2016 - Released in Puerto Rico.
• July 21^st, 2016 - Released in Japan. (due to technical difficulties and an increasingly unhappy consumer base, Niantic released a video statement)
• July 24^th, 2016 - Released in France.
• July 25^th, 2016 - Released in Hong Kong.
• August 3^rd, 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 5^th, 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 29^th, 2016 - Released in Albania, Bosnia and Herezgovina, Macau, Macedonia and Serbia.
• September 30^th, 2016 - Released in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
• October 4^th, 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 17^th, 2016 - Released in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.
• December 13^th, 2016 - Released in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• January 24^th, 2017 - Released in South Korea.
• September 11^th, 2018 - Released in Russia.
• June 4^th, 2021 - Released in Turkey.

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.

Pokémon GO - Get Up and Go!

Discover Pokémon in the Real World with Pokémon GO!

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.

Pokemon Go Gameplay First Look SXSW Gaming

Pokémon GO「株式会社ポケモン新事業発表会」記者会見- New announcement about『Pokémon GO』

Pokémon GO - Demonstration - Nintendo E3 2016

Pokémon GO 開発者メッセージ

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.