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| Global Pokénomics gives businesses a real-world boost | Global Pokénomics gives businesses a real-world boost |
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| Transfixed players have fallen off a cliff in California, wandered across the border in Canada and broken a limb in Australia while hunting Pokémon. The authorities at Auschwitz and the Hiroshima memorial have asked players to stay away; the police in Portugal, the Chinese army, the Indonesian civil service and Japan’s national centre of incident readiness and cybersecurity have all issued warnings. | Transfixed players have fallen off a cliff in California, wandered across the border in Canada and broken a limb in Australia while hunting Pokémon. The authorities at Auschwitz and the Hiroshima memorial have asked players to stay away; the police in Portugal, the Chinese army, the Indonesian civil service and Japan’s national centre of incident readiness and cybersecurity have all issued warnings. |
| In Britain, four teenagers had to be rescued in Wiltshire after following imaginary Pokémon down a 100ft mineshaft; two girls wandered half a mile out to sea on mudflats in Somerset; and a lifeboat crew was scrambled after three girls were seen wandering into rough seas in Hastings while playing the game. Network Rail has displayed signs warning commuters against straying on to tracks. | In Britain, four teenagers had to be rescued in Wiltshire after following imaginary Pokémon down a 100ft mineshaft; two girls wandered half a mile out to sea on mudflats in Somerset; and a lifeboat crew was scrambled after three girls were seen wandering into rough seas in Hastings while playing the game. Network Rail has displayed signs warning commuters against straying on to tracks. |
| Has there ever been a computer game – or a technological or artistic innovation of any kind – that has had the immediate international impact of Pokémon Go? Two weeks after its launch in the UK, less than a month after it became available in the US, and already rolled out to almost 40 other countries, the hit smartphone game has been shattering records for global downloads, and is estimated to have been installed on the phones of 75 million people worldwide – at least 5 million of them in the UK in its first week alone. Analysis suggests that after its US launch Pokémon Go was being used more widely than Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter. | Has there ever been a computer game – or a technological or artistic innovation of any kind – that has had the immediate international impact of Pokémon Go? Two weeks after its launch in the UK, less than a month after it became available in the US, and already rolled out to almost 40 other countries, the hit smartphone game has been shattering records for global downloads, and is estimated to have been installed on the phones of 75 million people worldwide – at least 5 million of them in the UK in its first week alone. Analysis suggests that after its US launch Pokémon Go was being used more widely than Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter. |
| The cultural impact of such enormous uptake has been equally huge, as parks, historical sites, transport hubs, churches and restaurants across the world have seen individuals wandering round, faces glued to their phones, in pursuit of creatures invisible to non-players – with all the hazards that entails. | The cultural impact of such enormous uptake has been equally huge, as parks, historical sites, transport hubs, churches and restaurants across the world have seen individuals wandering round, faces glued to their phones, in pursuit of creatures invisible to non-players – with all the hazards that entails. |
| The jargon of Pokémon Go may be baffling to outsiders, but its interface will be broadly familiar to anyone who has used their car’s satnav. The point of the game is to orient oneself in the real world using a 3D map on one’s phone screen, then discover Pokémon characters in augmented reality as viewed through the phone’s camera. Players – or “trainers” – can then catch the wide range of cartoon animals by flicking Poké Balls at them. | The jargon of Pokémon Go may be baffling to outsiders, but its interface will be broadly familiar to anyone who has used their car’s satnav. The point of the game is to orient oneself in the real world using a 3D map on one’s phone screen, then discover Pokémon characters in augmented reality as viewed through the phone’s camera. Players – or “trainers” – can then catch the wide range of cartoon animals by flicking Poké Balls at them. |
| Many real-world locations have become virtual PokéStops, where players can top up on items useful for playing the game. Others have been designated Pokémon gyms, which become the location for team-based battles for control of the facility. Just make sure you look where you’re going while heading there. | Many real-world locations have become virtual PokéStops, where players can top up on items useful for playing the game. Others have been designated Pokémon gyms, which become the location for team-based battles for control of the facility. Just make sure you look where you’re going while heading there. |
| It was at his four-year-old son’s birthday party that Paul Carmichael and a colleague had an idea. Two days earlier Pokémon Go had been released in Britain and though Carmichael didn’t know much about it, they had already spotted one or two children playing it around the Cardwell garden centre, near the village of Inverkip in Inverclyde, where he is retail general manager. Maybe there was an opportunity here. | It was at his four-year-old son’s birthday party that Paul Carmichael and a colleague had an idea. Two days earlier Pokémon Go had been released in Britain and though Carmichael didn’t know much about it, they had already spotted one or two children playing it around the Cardwell garden centre, near the village of Inverkip in Inverclyde, where he is retail general manager. Maybe there was an opportunity here. |
| “We checked it out at the garden centre, and we found a few Pokémon, so we decided to set up a campaign to get some people to come down to find them,” he says. They invited visitors to post photos on Facebook of the cartoon creatures they had discovered lurking virtually between the seed packets and garden furniture, for the chance of winning a £5 voucher for the centre’s restaurant. | “We checked it out at the garden centre, and we found a few Pokémon, so we decided to set up a campaign to get some people to come down to find them,” he says. They invited visitors to post photos on Facebook of the cartoon creatures they had discovered lurking virtually between the seed packets and garden furniture, for the chance of winning a £5 voucher for the centre’s restaurant. |
| It is a modest offer, he says, but “we’ve had lots of families coming in, young boys, young girls, going crazy because they have found something, and mum and dad are helping them. It’s allowed us to be in contact with different customers and people who may not have been involved with a garden centre before. I think it’s fantastic”. | It is a modest offer, he says, but “we’ve had lots of families coming in, young boys, young girls, going crazy because they have found something, and mum and dad are helping them. It’s allowed us to be in contact with different customers and people who may not have been involved with a garden centre before. I think it’s fantastic”. |
| As a phenomenon, says the technology presenter and writer Will Francis, Pokémon Go has been incomparable, but the game does not actually represent a significant technological step forward. He says its success is less due to its application of AR, which has been around for the best part of a decade, than the nostalgia of reviving Pokémon characters familiar from the childhoods of young adults. | As a phenomenon, says the technology presenter and writer Will Francis, Pokémon Go has been incomparable, but the game does not actually represent a significant technological step forward. He says its success is less due to its application of AR, which has been around for the best part of a decade, than the nostalgia of reviving Pokémon characters familiar from the childhoods of young adults. |
| “The game is actually quite lo-fi, and when you think about it, it’s massively unsocial,” he says – players can’t see other trainers on screen, for example, or compare their own scores online with those of their friends. “The only way you can tell if people are playing it is physically looking around you. That may be the genius of it – that they have forced the social element of it to live outside the app.” | “The game is actually quite lo-fi, and when you think about it, it’s massively unsocial,” he says – players can’t see other trainers on screen, for example, or compare their own scores online with those of their friends. “The only way you can tell if people are playing it is physically looking around you. That may be the genius of it – that they have forced the social element of it to live outside the app.” |
| Gaming expert Leigh Alexander thinks another reason for its popularity is that, having reached mass penetration of smartphones, socially we are acclimatised to a distraction culture – on any train you’re on, most people have their face in their phone – and this gives you something simple to do that is rewarding and comforting. She says: “It’s reminding people of a simpler time. There’s a lot of bad news going on in the US and the UK, social media has become a stressful experience. It’s becoming hellish to be jacked into that scene constantly. [This] changes our devices back into an object of wonder, rather than an object we’re shackled to that tortures us.” | Gaming expert Leigh Alexander thinks another reason for its popularity is that, having reached mass penetration of smartphones, socially we are acclimatised to a distraction culture – on any train you’re on, most people have their face in their phone – and this gives you something simple to do that is rewarding and comforting. She says: “It’s reminding people of a simpler time. There’s a lot of bad news going on in the US and the UK, social media has become a stressful experience. It’s becoming hellish to be jacked into that scene constantly. [This] changes our devices back into an object of wonder, rather than an object we’re shackled to that tortures us.” |
| Which is not to overlook the fact that a lot of money is being made out of the game’s success – already, inevitably, termed Pokénomics. Shares in Nintendo, which developed the Pokémon franchise in the 1990s and part-owns the company which licenses the characters, more than doubled following the release of Pokémon Go, only to plummet 18% after the company pointed out that it has only a small stake in the app, which is developed by Niantic, a former subsidiary of Google. | Which is not to overlook the fact that a lot of money is being made out of the game’s success – already, inevitably, termed Pokénomics. Shares in Nintendo, which developed the Pokémon franchise in the 1990s and part-owns the company which licenses the characters, more than doubled following the release of Pokémon Go, only to plummet 18% after the company pointed out that it has only a small stake in the app, which is developed by Niantic, a former subsidiary of Google. |
| Though the game is free to play, trainers are encouraged to buy (with real money) in-game resources like Poké Balls and Lucky Eggs. Euromonitor estimates the global market for all in-game purchases will grow 20% to $29.8bn (£22.6bn), greatly boosted by Pokémon Go. | Though the game is free to play, trainers are encouraged to buy (with real money) in-game resources like Poké Balls and Lucky Eggs. Euromonitor estimates the global market for all in-game purchases will grow 20% to $29.8bn (£22.6bn), greatly boosted by Pokémon Go. |
| Niantic has said it plans to establish many more deals like that struck with McDonald’s in Japan, where the developers designated 3,000 of the chain’s restaurants as Pokémon gyms, in exchange for a significant fee. | Niantic has said it plans to establish many more deals like that struck with McDonald’s in Japan, where the developers designated 3,000 of the chain’s restaurants as Pokémon gyms, in exchange for a significant fee. |
| For now, says Jack Ashby, manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology in London and a member of UCL’s digital humanities team, finding oneself an unexpected Pokéstop – where people are already wandering in, phones in hand – is immensely welcome. “It’s been given to us,” he says. “We have been automatically put in the game, without having to find the funding that has always been a barrier when it comes to technology and museums.” | For now, says Jack Ashby, manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology in London and a member of UCL’s digital humanities team, finding oneself an unexpected Pokéstop – where people are already wandering in, phones in hand – is immensely welcome. “It’s been given to us,” he says. “We have been automatically put in the game, without having to find the funding that has always been a barrier when it comes to technology and museums.” |