Niantic Labs finally broke its silence recently regarding "Pokémon GO," easily one of the most talked about games of 2015. Data from Google shows that the upcoming game is the sixth most searched video game this year, according to Express. While there is no word yet about the exact date of its 2016 release, fresh new details were revealed about gameplay and possible design elements.
The first important revelation involve "Pokémon GO's" characters. Based on the location-based augmented reality concept, the monsters can be hunted in their respective habitats.
"Pokémon will live in different parts of the world depending on what type of Pokémon they are," John Hanke, Niantic Labs CEO, told VentureBeat. "Water Pokémon will live near the water. It may be that certain Pokémon will only exist in certain parts of the world. Very rare Pokémon may exist in very few places. But you can trade."
Hanke's statement also highlights that "Pokémon GO" is all about collecting and trading as much as it is about battling monsters. He was also quite forthcoming about the technical aspect of developing a massive game that is literally global in scope. He pointed this out when he cited "Pokémon GO's" "asynchronous play." Here, people interact with locations. This not only makes a place feel alive in-game, but also links the game into one bigger setting. This is best demonstrated with the concept of moving "keys" around. A key, which is needed to make a link, is obtained from a portal.
"People are ferrying these around like they're muling drugs. They're transporting them from person to person," Hanke said. "That means, if you want to get them from New York to San Francisco, they may transit several places in between. It stitches the whole world together into the global game."
"Pokémon GO" will be avilable both on the Android and iOS platforms.
