We’ve seen plenty of VR news this E3; it’s time for something from the augmented reality (AR) camp.
Fortunately, Nintendo is providing in this field. The company has a relatively small presence at this year’s show, almost exclusively focusing on its upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it has spared some time for some of its other titles. One of these is Pokemon Go, a free-to-play iOS and Android game from Niantic that has got a lot of fans very, very excited with its use of AR. Today, we’ve got a release window for the project.
Pokemon Go will be launching this July on both operating systems. The news was announced during Nintendo’s Treehouse stream for this E3, though a specific day was sadly not confirmed. The upcoming peripheral for the app, a wrist-worn device named Pokemon Go Plus that lets you play the game without the smartphone app, won’t be available at this date, and Nintendo has yet to confirm and official date for it.
We’ll admit we’re a little surprised to hear the game is coming so soon. The title recently hosted a ‘Field Test’ beta, which we managed to get into and have a root around. There we learnt a little more about the app’s battle system, and just how monetization will play into the experience. The game asks you to travel to real world locations to catch virtual Pokemon that will appear on the given smartphone’s screen.
That’s not all Pokemon fans can looks forward to this year; Pokemon Sun and Moon are coming to 3DS. It’s going to be interesting to see what kind on an impact this spin-off has on those main games; could the move to phones mean that this will eventually turn into Nintnedo’s flagship title in the franchise? Either way, we’re still hoping to see a true Pokemon VR game later down the line.
