Pokémon GO fans now have a little bit more to be excited for today. Companies Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company have now funded Niantic Labs $20 million.
This investment will not only go toward Pokémon GO, but also Niantic’s well-known reality game that inspired the Pokémon game, Ingress, as well as other future projects.
This chunk of change will help Niantic reach tech goals and put forth features needed to help Pokémon GO live up to expectations.
The trailer depicts a trade session.
A Breakdown of Pokémon GO:
Pokémon GO is meant to be the newest and coolest way to live out your Pokémon adventure and try to catch ’em all. Players will be able to use an app on their mobile devices to find, catch, battle, and trade Pokémon.
The coolest part about it? You will be able to travel your town or city streets. Look around through the app camera and see the Pokémon you can catch and battle just by walking down the street.
Think of it like Fatal Frame’s camera obscura but without the murderous poltergeists and lots of cool and cute Pokémon. Either way, it’s like that Magikarp is actually in that puddle outside your house. Whoa.
There’s also no need to live on the app, looking like a nature vlogger during your morning commute or a late night trip to the corner store. There will be a separate tech device to notify you if something is happening.
Alongside the mobile game, Niantic plans to release the Pokémon GO Plus Bluetooth device that notifies trainers of nearby wild Pokémon and app events.
The Plus devices vibrate and light up.
It was also mentioned in the debut announcement (it’s also right in the trailer as a mob attacks Time Square if you checked that out) that there will be special location-based events and challenges that will take place each month.
The team behind it
Pokémon GO is inspired by Niantic Lab’s previously released virtual reality mobile game Ingress. This game allows players to capture portals attached to cultural objects in real life. It is also a mass-multiplayer role play, on Android and iOS.
Ingress works similarly to Pokémon GO, where you look through the app camera and see things pertaining to the game. In the case of Ingress, it’s portals. Niantic Labs seems to capture the motto “Things aren’t always what they seem.”
An example of VR gameplay with Ingress.
It has also been mentioned that if Niantic meets project milestones, it will be eligible for further rewards, notably an additional $10 million. That means Niantic will be invested in up to $30 million by these companies.
Future trainers can hope these investments will surpass expectations and potentially provide new features. Even if nothing new from the trailer rises, it still appears to be a cool upcoming experience for Pokémon fans.
Pokémon GO is set to release some time in 2016. Niantic plans to release various progress updates between now, Mid-October, until the official release.
