Super Mario Run wasn’t the only Nintendo-related announcement made at Apple’s conference today. Niantic also stopped by to reveal that Pokemon GO is heading to Apple Watch.

Here’s what we know thus far:

– This version of the game is based on activity goals set by the player
– During a walk, it registers the distance and calories burned
– Players can also collect items, visit PokeStops and attempt to catch eggs as they travel along
– This is shown on the watch’s screen with a simple user interface
– A summary screen at the end of the walk will detail all of the items collected during the walk
– Also shows how much you exercised

John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, also said that Pokemon GO has been downloaded over 500 million times worldwide. Players walked over 4.6 billion kilometers.

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Pokemon GO – Buddy Pokemon feature officially revealed

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 9 Comments

Pokemon GO fans found hints of a new buddy system through recent data mining. Today, Niantic officially revealed the feature, which will be called “Buddy Pokemon”.

As Niantic puts it, Buddy Pokemon lets users choose their favorite Pokemon to open it up for in-game rewards and experience. You’ll see the creature walking with your Trainer avatar on your profile screen. Bonuses include Candy for walking together. Of course, you can change your Buddy Pokemon whenever you wish.

View some screenshots of Buddy Pokemon below. You can find Niantic’s full message below, which also teases “a lot more” for the fall.

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Pokemon GO has brought in over $440 million in gross worldwide revenue

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

Pokemon GO keeps on trucking, as Sensor Tower reports that the game has exceeded $440 million in gross worldwide revenue on the App Store and Google Play. Niantic’s net revenue now sits at over $308 million thus far.

That’s the highlight from Sensor Tower’s report, but we also now know that global installs have surpassed 180 million worldwide. It’s estimated that the app has been installed on more than 12 percent of all active U.S. smartphones at some point. And as of August 30, active U.S. players on iOS have spent 32 minutes on Pokemon GO, which lines up closely to its launch in July. Lastly, in terms of revenue, Pokemon GO is still earning more than $4 million in worldwide net revenue each day.

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Pokemon GO – 3,700 SoftBank stores in Japan becoming a PokeStop or Gym

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 2 Comments

Pokemon GO has its third big partnership in Japan. Across the country, 3,700 stores from SoftBank will be either a PokeStop or Gym. This follows the deals with McDonald’s and Toho Cinemas.

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More Pokemon GO data mining suggests buddy system feature is coming

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 5 Comments

Pokemon GO data miners are once again pouring through the game’s code in hope of finding new secrets. What’s been found today may suggest that a new feature is coming.

In Pokemon GO’s latest version, there are references to a buddy system. Pokemon GO Hub summarizes what we know thus far:

Pokemon Buddy System is using the same server side distance calculation as the one used for Pokemon Eggs
Walking your Pokemon Buddy will award you with candy. The amount of candy is yet to be determined.
You can walk the same Pokemon Buddy multiple times, but there is likely a daily limitfor obtained candy
You can walk with only one Buddy Pokemon at a time
There are various looks of Buddy Pokemon
- Medium size
- Big size
- Flying next to you
- Rests on your shoulder

Based on these findings, we may see a buddy system added to Pokemon GO in an update soon. As always, we’ll keep you informed about future patches.

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Niantic gives an update on Pokemon GO bans

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

Niantic has posted an update on the situation surrounding bans in Pokemon GO. Some accounts have been unbanned – mainly from players who were unaware about what they were getting into with add-on map apps. However, most accounts that were previously banned for violating Terms of Service will not be adjusted.

Here’s the full update from Niantic:

We continue to work to ensure the integrity of the game and the health of our servers by blocking unauthorized access and at times by banning offending accounts. This includes blocking bots, data scraping operations, and banning end user accounts associated with those activities. Some players may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon. Each end-user app can be used as a collection tool by the app creator, invisibly collecting and forwarding data to the app creator with or without the knowledge of the end user. These apps can have an effect similar to DDoS attacks on our servers. Because of this we have had to ban some accounts associated with using these add-on map tools, leading to confusion by some users about why they were banned. This is a small subset of the accounts banned.
As a result of some changes made to our infrastructure, we are now able to unban this set of accounts. Add-on maps which scrape data from our servers still violate our Terms of Service and use of them may still result in an account ban going forward. Accounts whose sole purpose was to scrape data are not being unbanned. Accounts which used apps or websites to remotely capture Pokémon, battle or deploy on Gyms, or harvest resources from PokéStops are also not being unbanned. Our main priority is to provide a fair, fun, and legitimate experience for all players, so, aggressive banning will continue to occur for players who engage in these kinds of activities.

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Latest Pokemon GO code references include trading, Legendary Pokemon, and more

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 5 Comments

Eager fans have been poking around Pokemon GO’s latest update in hopes of discovering what’s to come for the game. Findings from Redditor cokuspocus may offer new insight.

A number of trading references have been detected within Pokemon GO. These include searching, offering, responding and results of a trade.

Pokemon GO’s code also mentions “Item_incense_spicy”, “Item_incense_cool” and “Item_incense_floral” as well as “activity_catch_legend_pokemon”. There’s also a hint of sponsored events or locations similar to Japan’s situation with McDonald’s.

You can read up on the full Reddit post here.

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Pokemon GO unofficial spawn rate chart

Posted on 8 years ago by Zack in Mobile | 3 Comments

PokemonGoChamp has recently published an unofficial spawn rate chart for Pokemon Go.

The chart, which was made from the large amount of data collected by PokeRader, lists the spawn rates for every Pokemon that can be caught within Pokemon Go. The listed percentages are calculated on a rolling 1 week period across approximately 100 million historical data points to help ensure the highest level of accuracy.

PokemonGoChamp claims that, after doing some research, it can confirm that the data set is “highly accurate”. The chart also includes the most common time a specific Pokemon will appear at.

You can view the chart here.

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SuperData Research: Pokemon GO is the most successful mobile launch in history

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

Pokemon GO is the most successful mobile launch in history, according to SuperData Research. It surpassed Monster Strike as the top mobile game, and managed to take first place in top-grossing and top-download rankings for every country it launched in.

Global digital game sales in July were up 10 percent year-over-year to $5.9 billion. Thanks to Pokemon GO, the mobile category grew 16 percent from a year ago.

Pokemon GO also positively impacted Nintendo hardware and software. As SuperData notes:

“Nintendo’s mobile strategy ended up paying off exactly as intended. 3DS unit sales rose by over 50 percent from a year ago, an astonishing feat for underpowered hardware nearing the end of its lifespan. Furthermore, sales of 3DS games boomed. Combined sales of Pokémon Omega Red and Alpha Sapphire and Pokémon X and Y (2015 and 2013 releases) nearly doubled. Pokémon Go is the only factor that can explain jumps in sales of this magnitude. We are optimistic that mobile spin-offs for Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing will have a positive impact on Nintendo’s ecosystem.”

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