KYOTO – The Pokemon world is coming to you in 2016.Pokemon GO is set for a 2016 release date and will allow players to battle and trade with each other. Photo courtesy: The Pokemon Company
On September 10, 2015, The Pokemon Company announced that Pokemon GO, a new and free game for iOS and Android devices, will be released next year.
The new game will allow users to meet other Pokemon trainers in the real world. A video released alongside the announcement show a situation where players will meet on the street to exchange and battle Pokemon together.
The Pokemon Company is working with Niantic, a former Google division, to create this new game. They are planning to release the game outside of Japan and they hope to have the game available in as many languages as possible.
They also announced a device that will go along with the game called the Pokemon Go Plus, a device worn on your wrist that will let you know when you are near another player.
Tunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokemon Company, said he is currently in discussions with Nintendo to decide a good price for the device that will work with the game.
The new game has received a strong response from players around the world; however, there are many fans of the series who are wary of the game making a dive onto mobile platforms where microtransactions run more rampant than wild Pokemon.
This new game is also part of a trend for the series where it seems to be venturing more outside of its original games. Pokken Tournament, a Pokemon fighting game, was released in July in Japanese arcades.