"Pokemon GO" is certainly making huge waves globally, with lots of people falling in-love with Niantic's newest title. This just goes to show the impact that Pikachu and the rest of the Pokemons have to the world as a whole. Given its massive hit, the game's skyrocketing success is something worth learning about and noting. Why do people love it? What made the game an instant template of success?
In its most organic form, "Pokemon GO" is the kind of game that forces people to go outside the comforts of their homes. They need to go from Point A to Point B, all in hopes to catch a Pokemon. With the game being a free smartphone app, it has definitely soared up high.
According to The New York Times, "Pokemon GO" is the epitome of a brand new technology called Augmented Reality (also known as A.R.) successfully applied in today's society. With the new tech and along with the modern digital tech, it has grown to something bigger than even Niantic could have ever imagined. Basically, the studio was clever enough to use a technology that overlays digital imagery on a user's view of the real world, something that is done through a smartphone.
In "Pokemon GO" realm, players will have to journey the physical world, with a digital map being their guide. And through this, they have to search for a cartoon specie that surfaces at a random pace. This is where people will have to look at their phones from time to time to see if they have caught a Pokemon. From there, they will have to toss a Pokeball in order to capture it - something that the anime counterpart is famous for.
Vox, on the other hand, notes that "Pokemon GO" has already sold more than 30 million copies. Sure enough, this proves just how strong the game's fanbase is. Niantic certainly know that fans have long been hoping to become a Pokemon trainer one day.
For publisher Nintendo, the craze over "Pokemon GO" is a direct result from their so-called hypotheses "same generation hypothesis." The latter basically refers to the fact that there are people who continuously, be it consciously or unconsciously, stick to their childhood games even after growing out of that perceived target.
