Pokémon GO: Overview

Pokémon are creatures which players (called Pokémon Trainers) catch and train to battle each other for sport. Thus far, there are 729 revealed species, which can be organized under different attributes. The first Pokémon games were created for Nintendo and premiered in Japan on February 27, 1996, the brainchild of creator Satoshi Tajiri. (The term Pokémon comes from “Pocket Monsters”.)  Pokémon games in various permutations (including trading cards) proved so popular that an anime series based on the game debuted in 1997, further spawning a manga series, a magazine, and more. Now Pokémon have remerged into the public spotlight with a new game that is taking over public consciousness.  Pokémon GO is a free-to-play, location-based, augmented reality (AR) game developed by Niantic and released to most of the world in July 2016. The CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, has declared that the goal of Pokémon GO is to “facilitate the real-life stuff” such as getting people to exercise, to see the world with new eyes, and giving people a reason to spend time together.

Fair Use: Pokémon GO logo is owned by The Pokémon Company. Used here to serve as the primary means of visual identification at the top of the LibGuide dedicated to the work in question.