Despite the doom and gloom news of waning interest in Niantic’s immensely popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go, the company is still enjoying immense profit off the game, being named the fastest mobile game to get USD$500 million in revenue. Niantic are surely looking at ways to add to the playing population of the game, and that’s what CEO John Hanke has revealed at TechCrunch.
With the announcement that Pokemon Go will be made available for the Apple Watch, it looks like Niantic is targeting those with smartwatches as a possible expansion. Does that mean that the game will also make it to Android Wear? “As other devices come on the market – if those are Android Wear devices or if they are devices from other quadrants that are interesting for gameplay and mobility, and being active – we’ll look into supporting those, too,” Hanke said. When asked specifically if Pokemon Go will come to Android Wear, Hanke replied, “I think it’s pretty likely, yeah.”
Hanke enumerates the hardware that smartwatches now have – like specifically on the Apple Watch – that can give it an interesting take on mobility and gameplay for Pokemon Go. He says that these devices now have standalone GPS, great processing speed for the size, and even waterproofing, which gives people less of the “wet smartphone while playing Pokemon Go” problem.
Pokemon Go just rolled out its buddy update recently, and Hanke has given nods to rumored features like Pokemon trading and player to player battling. Hanke confirmed that player versus player battles will arrive in the future, too. “I have 10 year old son – he’s my Pokémon expert, we play together – he wants to battle his friends in Pokémon Go,” Hanke admitted. “Battling is something we talk a lot about. It’s probably something that will make its way onto our roadmap.”
SOURCE: TechCrunch
