Pokémon Go! (Into Private Territory to Catch a Snorlax)

Welp, this thing even made the ABC news here. Do you know how much mainstream exposure something needs to make the ABC? Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid bit I think this could set a very concering precedent for future Nintendo franchises, a slippery slope.

Will I help form that slippery slope? Maybe, when I remember my google password and can actually download the ruddy thing!

Yep this worries me. It's doing too well. The last thing I want is for Nintendo to decide that this is the way it wants to go down. Imagine if the NX isn't brilliant on arrival, and neither's the next one. What odds now that Ninty 'phones it in, literally, and starts paying more and more attention to mobile at the expense of proper projects? (Adjective used after thought but with prejudice.)

Nintendo shares jumped up 25% so yeah, mobile is going to be a big Nintendo thing.

We just have to hope that doesn't come at detriment to Nintendo hardware and console software.

I think we all have to hope that interest in the game fades as they progress through the gens.  I can see gen 2 whenever they decide to release that expansion being almost as big as gen 1, but are the casuals most of whom grew up with the OG games going to care when they start adding nothing creatures like Emolga and Luvdisc?  Even I care very little for large swathes of the additions beyond generation four, and I'm a big Pokemon Master tragic.

Hopefully by the time they get a few gens in interest will die down to a decent enough to help Nintendo stay in business but not so big they decide to focus on mobile level.  Nintendo would be very stupid indeed to plan to cater to the casuals long term, it's what saw the Wii U flop harder than a Magikarp on dry land.

I don't know if this is true, but supposedly Pokémon Go has boosted sales of the 3DS Pokémon titles on Amazon. Hopefully that's a sign that the mobile market is working as Ninty intended.

If that's so, then aces.

I've not seen a game have so much hype around it for years, possibly since SmackDown 2 on the PSone.

Madness when we're all starting to hope a Nintendo product doesn't do too well, I understand and feel much the same way but still strange to see how times have changed.

JayMoyles wrote:

I don't know if this is true, but supposedly Pokémon Go has boosted sales of the 3DS Pokémon titles on Amazon. Hopefully that's a sign that the mobile market is working as Ninty intended.

This is hopefully going to be the case with Nintendo's mobile offerings, they said that was the intention after all. I can certainly see it being the case, Pokemon Go is fairly addictive in it's own right with the real world involvement but it's still not a patch on the true Pokemon experience and is unlikely to get people like me spending money on it.

See, I'd thought the average consumer would be the same and wouldn't really be fussed about actually spending money on this, but I think I saw Sporky post on Twitter that the revenue from this game has been generated by lots of smaller purchases rather than a few users dumping hundreds on it.

Yay, lots of people are talking about and playing a Pokémon game. Stop being such negative nancies!

You all know this isn't a game part of Nintendo's Mobile plan, it's Pokemon Company doing what they want again.

Absol-utely! It's been a good thing for Nintendo's share valuation, though - at least in the short term.

It does tie in directly with Nintendo's mobile plans though - the success of Pokemon Go will almost undoubtedly inform and affect Nintendo's future plans.

It's not like Nintendo haven't been involved - they have been, quite heavily, with the marketing

Yeah of course it will effect them but it isn't part of the 4 game plan which is talked about investors meeting of games Nintendo are doing themselves with DeNA.

If Pokemon Go had flopped, Nintendo could of gone well that's not our game wait in till Animal Crossing comes out.

It really is nice to see folk getting so excited over something (and for a mobile game/app no less) it reminds me of when absolutely everyone was talking about animal crossing new leaf.

That was ace! I had a non-gaming Twitter friend DM me to ask what #ACNL meant.

With a mobile Animal Crossing to come, we may yet see the best/worst of both worlds.

The_Jaster wrote:

It really is nice to see folk getting so excited over something...

Agreed.

The_Jaster wrote:

...(and for a mobile game/app no less)...

Disagreed.

I'm not saying mobile games/apps are bad btw just that a good chunk of gamers tend to shit on them because they're not a console/handheld game, this doesn't seem to be happening with Pokemon Go.

No, I am!  I'm shitting on this app!  Not because it's inherently bad, just because I'm very worried for what it means for the future of Nintendo if their other businesses start to go awry.  How tempting must it be, as a shareholder or business person, to see this and the Wii U and tell Ninty to switch to handheld and mobile?  

Nintendo won't do that themselves of course... or not yet.  But if the NX does a Wii U, or even a Gamecube?  Kimishima is a businessman, not an ex-developer with dreams like Iwata.  He could be tempted.  Maybe he already is.

And personally, I don't care about this stuff.  All of this is said from a selfish point of view, I recognise that.  But playing a simplified version of a franchise I've immersed myself in, on the crappiest gaming machine I own (including my Mac), doesn't interest me in the slightest.  Same goes for Animal Crossing, less so though as it's already quite simple, but I'd rather play a Wii U Crossing game (or almost any other Ninty franchise) than a mobile one.  So the idea that Nintendo could invest a lot of time, money, resources, and energy in this direction - I don't want it!

So while I am happy to be able to talk Pokémon with non-traditional gamers, I'm also very worried about the potential ramifications.  So for me, it isn't really nice. I will be very happy for someone to tell me that I'm wrong and that this will have no effect on Ninty's business direction (with reasoning).


Worried rant over, has anyone actually paid real money in this thing yet?

I do see where you're coming from Balla, and I share your concerns about Ninty turning full force towards the mobile market in the future - I'd be sad to see the company go that way too. But at this point in time, Nintendo are still bringing out the NX, the 3DS is still being supported and that's not changing anytime soon.

If the mobile market is fuelling them in a major way, I see that as no bad thing at this point of time as they're still developing full-fledged "proper" gaming experiences. Course, if that changes then maybe I'll look back on Pokémon Go as the beginning of the end for the Nintendo that I know and love. I simply don't see that happening though, and I'm loving seeing people genuinely excited for a Nintendo game. The amount of chat about Go is staggering, and I'm certain at least some of Go's users will be looking into a Nintendo console because of Go's success. If they don't, then Go is generating revenue for Nintendo and the Pokémon Company to hopefully reinvest in bigger titles and experiences.

The Illuminati has been confirmed, and it's worse than you think.

Amazing reply.

Completely missed the fact that it's chuffing Kirby.

This sucks, I live in the back end of nowhere and there are no pokemon which is completely illogical. I walked about for two whole hours and not even a ratatata. I used an incense then and a few showed up, including a horsea and a geodude(still no top percentage ratata). But with no gyms nearby and no pvp battles as of yet, I don't see the point in the game. /rant

I'm not into the battle system and it keeps crashing but I still seem to be playing, what a nutter I am!