For months since its initial announcement, news has been sparse about the upcoming mobile game, Pokemon GO. But now it's revealed that the game will be shown during the Game Developer's Conference 2016. On top of that, Famitsu also released an interview with with Setsuto Murai, representative president of Niantic Japan and Kento Suga, marketing manager of Niantic Japan, discussing how the idea for the game came to be.
In an interview with Famitsu (via Nintendo Everything), Murai and Suga discuss that the origins of Pokemon GO came from an April Fool's Day prank in Google Maps back in 2014. On that day, people found Pokemon lurking about while using Google Maps, and received a lot of positive feedback as a result. Murai and Suga were part of the team that handled Google Maps at that time, which was how they became acquainted with Nintendo. Murai reveals that "That Pokemon Challenge was a chance for us to be able to build relations with people at Pokemon, and then (Pokemon) president (Tsunekazu) Ishihara and John (Hanke) were able to meet (...) the talk became "Let's do something together in the future"."
At that point, the Google Maps-based exploration game, Ingress, had already been released for a short time, and Ishihara had already played it at that point, which seemed to be the starting point for the idea that became Pokemon GO. In the same interview, Murai reveals that they plan on taking advantage of the location-based mechanics and the availability of smartphones to create a new market for location-based game apps. "For example when you turn in the corner,(...) wondering if a Pokemon may come out. (...) adding location features would add new charms to them." Suga says.
Pokemon GO will also have a session available during the Game Developers Conference this year. Nintendo Insider reports that a session called Catch 'Em All: Pokemon GO and Real World Gaming will be hosted by Niantic CEO John Hanke, and will be giving fans a first-hand look into the game and its exploration mechanics. The session will be centered on how the real world will affect Pokemon GO players and how they can interact with the augmented reality the game will offer. Currently, there are no further details available regarding where and when the session will take place.
Pokemon GO has always been highly anticipated since its announcement last year, with many fans aching to be able to play in the near future. Many 20th Anniversary promotional material by Nintendo feature elements of Pokemon GO heavily, with the most recent being the Pokemon 20th Anniversary TV commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl 50. The ad, which is available on the Official Pokemon Channel on YouTube, uses the themes of ambition, drive and determination to reflect the nature and desire of Pokemon players to succeed, both in-game and out of it. The words "Train On" feature heavily in the ad, and combines real life scenes with Pokemon to drive their point in. The ad received much positive feedback from viewers, and also increased the anticipation for Pokemon GO.
The GDC will be taking place from March 14-18, 2016, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This will be the 30th GDC event since its conception in 1988.
