This past week at SXSW, John Hanke, CEO of Pokémon GO developer Niantic, talked about AR (Augmented Reality) games and the impact they could have on the industry. Soon after his speech, this video appeared online:
Could this be our first look at Pokémon GO? The game is due to begin testing in Japan this month, so this would be a good time to pull back the curtains on it. As Kotaku points out, however, there is no video or transcript of Hanke’s speech, so there is no way to know if this footage is 100% legitimate or not.
Pokémon GO, an AR Pokémon game for mobile devices, was first announced in September 2015 and fans have been chomping at the bit for any new footage ever since. In December 2015 — during an interview with VentureBeat — Hanke mentioned incorporating Pokémon’s iconic gym battles into the game as rare events, as well as giving details on how PvP could work. Ever since, Niantic has been radio silent — however, with Pokémon GO scheduled to launch this year and testing due to begin soon in Japan, the probability of this being real (albeit early) footage seems pretty high.
