‘Pokemon GO’ Question and Answer Session with Developers at E3!

The Pokemon GO question and answer session just ended at E3! The game’s Pokemon GO Plus accessory, they hope, will be in stores by the end of July. The game will come out before that point. If they’re able to finish it on time, we’ll be playing it within the next month or two!

• The project was started in 2013 after the April Fools’ Google Maps joke.
• So many people are testing the beta version of the game right now that there’s an average of 30 Poke Balls thrown per second.
• Meowth, Abra, Voltorb, Eevee, and Machop were caught around Los Angeles. (Urban-y Pokemon.) The game will tell you the cities where you caught each of your Pokemon.
• You can nickname the Pokemon you catch.
• They chose to start the game with Red and Blue‘s Pokemon because they’re nostalgic to old players and yet new to newer players. There are plans to add the other generations of Pokemon eventually.
• When throwing a Poke Ball you can directly control its strength and direction.
• Junichi Masuda worked on the music in the game. The music is energetic to get you to walk faster.
• When a Pokemon is nearby, the Pokemon GO Plus device will vibrate and flash green. You then press a button to catch the Pokemon, though success is not guaranteed. If you succeed, the device will flash in rainbow colors. If you fail, it will flash red. They want you to be able to play the game without pulling our your phone, hence this method of capture.
• They’re expecting Pokemon GO Plus to be released by the end of July, but there was nervous laughter, so it sounds like they’re still not sure. The application will be out before the device.
• The GO Plus device will be sold online and in stores for $34.99.
• Eventually there will be connectivity between Pokemon GO and the main series games, but not immediately it seems.
• There’s a “candy” system in the game. When you catch a Pokemon you get a candy for that Pokemon. You then use the candies to power up and evolve your Pokemon. If you catch 25 Squirtle, you use the 25 candies to evolve Squirtle into Wartortle. They didn’t want you to have to train your Pokemon like the main games — the goal is to keep you moving in real life, not training in a video game. This is why capturing Pokemon is the main goal of the game.
• You will be able to trade Pokemon at some point in the future, but not when the game launches.