Today, during a live stream detailing new business strategies and plans for the future, The Pokémon Company announced a game that many have been waiting for: Pokémon for their smartphones.
Pokémon Go is the latest project from former Google subsidiary Niantic, Inc., who will be working in conjunction with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo on the game. The title will be an augmented reality, or AR, game that uses the smartphone’s camera. When the camera is pointed, for example, at a lake, players may find a Squirtle and will be able to try to capture it.
Junichi Masuda stated that while the gameplay is simple, it will have considerable depth to it – so players should expect battles and evolving at a minimum. John Hanke, founder of Niantic, stated that he and his team are passionate about Pokémon, and that the game itself is the vision of late Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata.
The game is set to release sometime in 2016 for both Android and iPhone.