One of my most formative gaming experiences didn't happen in front of the TV or PC, but in the schoolyard. I still remember precisely how a few kids – not many – would gather in a shady corner, pull out the much-too-short Link Cable, and switch on their Game Boys. And then, for the entire break, sometimes even longer, they would trade the Pokémon they had caught themselves from the Red and Blue Editions or battle with them.
From today's perspective, that might not sound like much. But the ability to share your Pokémon fascination with others in that way, and outdoors no less, was groundbreaking! Something similar, but even more groundbreaking, would happen again many years later with Pokémon. And this time, it wouldn't be limited to a few kids at school. Let's take a quick look back at ten years of Pokémon Go!
Childhood Dream in Your Pocket
For the pop culturally uninitiated, it must have been a strange sight back then: groups of people gathered in the oddest places, but they barely spoke to each other. Nor were they loudly playing music or holding up more or less witty banners. No, they just stood there, looking at their phones, and then moved on shortly after.
But for Pokémon fans, it was the fulfillment of a childhood dream: that Pokémon actually existed in our world! At least digitally. Because that was one of Pokémon Go's great achievements: it cleverly merged the digital fantasy world of Pokémon with the real world. And it did so at just the right time, when virtually everyone had a smartphone with GPS and a halfway decent camera in their pocket. You just had to download the app, and the search for Pokémon began in your own city, in the forest, wherever you were.
The concept was based on Ingress, the first mobile game from developer Niantic. That too was an augmented reality game where gamers walked to specific locations in the real world to influence the virtual world. However, the concept only became mainstream thanks to the charm of the little pocket monsters. Well, at least when it worked...
Almost Fell Off the Train
The first time I heard about Pokémon Go, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon – and promptly tumbled off again. As I recall, nothing worked at all at first. This was probably due to the hype and overloaded servers. But I didn't care; I was just annoyed that the app kept crashing. My battery died after what felt like fifteen minutes. And the strange places I was sometimes told to go...
Luckily, I gave the game another chance a few weeks later; the hype was still unbroken. And lo and behold: many things were fixed! And I was hooked too. Because the fundamental idea was, and is, unbeatable. By that, I don't just mean the hunt for Pokémon, but also random encounters with other players. Or how you constantly found new ways and means to optimize yourself, for example, by cleverly utilizing stopovers during your daily bus ride. Above all, however, Pokémon Go was a revelation for my dog. He didn't care about any Pokémon, but he was happy that we suddenly took completely different and much longer walks.
Impiety and ADAC Warnings
I mentioned that Pokémon sometimes appeared in strange places at the beginning. In my case, these were usually some meadows where a fence prevented me from throwing the next Poké Ball. But there were also completely different cases where Pokémon fans apparently forgot that they were in the real world. Restaurant patrons sitting outside were disturbed, loud cheers echoed through cemeteries, and even memorials to World War II were not spared. Data protectionists, on the other hand, worried about recorded movement profiles, while the ADAC issued warnings because both pedestrians and drivers were distracted by the hunt.
Unique Hype
But despite all legitimate criticism: Pokémon Go was a fantastic experience. And above all, a huge success! By 2024, the app had been downloaded almost 700 million times. In 2023, seven years after its launch, Pokémon Go still had 55 million active monthly players. Revenue to date amounts to over 7.5 billion dollars!
No wonder others wanted a piece of the juicy pie. But no other game quite managed to replicate the fascination or success of Pokémon Go. However, there was no shortage of attempts. Even Niantic made several attempts, for example with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Pikmin Bloom, or Monster Hunter Now. But in the end, Pokémon Go was probably just the right idea at the right time. And of course, with the right franchise: after all, Pokémon simply fit so organically into our world. And now I'm curious to see if the little monsters manage to create such a new multiplayer experience again. They are certainly capable of it.
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