Pokemon Go is, in many ways, the world’s biggest mobile game. The app has been downloaded over a billion times and it generated over $1 billion in revenue in the first ten months of 2020 (taking its lifetime gross to $4 billion).
Though it’s not the craze it was when it launched in 2016, it’s still a ridiculously successful game, quietly generating huge amounts of income and encouraging millions around the world to catch Pokemon. So what does the future hold for this mobile monster-collecting game?
More Pokemon
The mainstream Pokemon games on Nintendo handheld consoles are released in gen-erations. Each generation starts with a pair of games (e.g. Sword and Shield) that intro-duce a new region new features and, most importantly, a new slew of Pokemon. More games, including spin-offs are released and then a new generation comes out. As of early 2021, Pokemon is midway through its eighth generation, with the ninth sup-posedly starting sometime in 2022 or 2023. Pokemon Go was released in summer 2016 during the sixth generation and initially, only creatures from the first generation were available. Over the last few years, Pokemon Go has been playing catch-up with the main series by steadily adding in more generations of Pokemon. In late 2020, Pokemon from the sixth generation started making their appearances. If release patterns are anything to go by, the seventh generation of critters should start getting rolled out later this year, and the eighth late next year. A problem that will arise in the near future is that Pokemon Go will eventually catch up to the main series. There’s usually a wait of three to four years between generations. So, at some point soon all existing Pokemon will be available in Pokemon Go and the game will have to go several years without having any new Pokemon for players to catch.
New Features
When Pokemon Go was released, it was a basic game: all you could do was catch Pokemon, hatch eggs and interact with gyms. Nowadays, there are all sorts of features that have been implemented, from field research tasks, friendship and the buddy system, to online battling, Adventure Sync (which rewards your walking) and raid battles (which can be solo or co-operative). While the game thrives on adding new Pokemon, its features also drive up player en-gagement (and spending). Throughout 2021 and beyond, currently existing features may well be tweaked or enhanced to make them more enjoyable and user friendly. But what new features could be added? In-game communication with friends is one that fans have long been asking for. You can exchange gifts with your in-game ‘friends’ and battle them, but you can’t communicate with them in any way. The reason in-game chat hasn’t been introduced is presumably because a lot of young people play the game and there are concerns about their safety. Even so, a lim-ited/moderated chat function could be introduced at some point – it hasn’t been ruled out. It’s very likely that augmented reality will be used more in Pokemon Go. After all, its parent company Niantic is predominantly an AR company. Some of the game’s current features already use AR (taking real-world photos with your Pokemon in them, for example), but it could become an even more prevalent aspect of the game in new ways.
Real-Life Tournaments
The Pokemon GO Battle League, the game’s competitive online battle system, was intro-duced in 2020. It’s rumoured that Niantic could try to capitalise on the success of this fea-ture by holding real-world battle tournaments. It could work in a similar way to other multi-player tournaments, such as the Fortnite World Cup, where the top qualifying players are invited to take part in some sort of ranked battle competition.
Though Pokemon Go battles seem to be all about tapping the phone frantically, there’s actually a lot of strategy involved. There’s the matter of what Pokemon to use and what moves they should have, as well as when to use charged attacks and protective shields. There is some depth to battles and that could help make real-world tournaments take off.
Real-Life Events
Pokemon Go has already held many real-world events, such as its summer Go Fest cele-brations that have taken place in several different cities. These ticketed events invite players from all over the world to play the game, catch rare Pokemon and earn special rewards. These events have been huge successes for Niantic. Even though a fraction of the play-er base gets to take part, all players can take part in themed in-game events, often involv-ing challenges that run at the same time. Given how popular these are, it’s likely that they’ll be a staple of the event calendar for many years to come; the number of real-world events held per year is probably going to increase too.
