Niantic

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News | 71 Comments

Stocks, share prices, and other things of that nature aren’t usually something we cover. After all, those tend to fluctuate often, and can do so quickly. However, Pokemon GO has made such an impact for Nintendo that we’re willing to make an exception.

Business Insider reports that Nintendo shares rose roughly 10 percent on Friday. And today, in early trading in Tokyo, shares increased as much as 23 percent. Bloomberg’s David Ingles notes that this is the best one-day move for Nintendo stock since 1983.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 17 Comments

Pokemon GO has only been out for a few days and in three countries, but it’s nonetheless doing extremely well. SimilarWeb offers more insight into the app’s performance thus far.

SimilarWeb states that two days after Pokemon GO’s launch, it was already installed on 5.16 percent of all Android devices in the US. That was July 8. One day prior, on July 7, it already saw more installs on US phones than Tinder.

Another important stat to consider is the usage rate. Over 60 percent of those who have downloaded the app in the US are using it each day. To explain it further, roughly three percent of the entire US Android population are users of Pokemon GO. SimilarWeb labels the metric as “Daily Active Users”, and believes it will surpass Twitter in this area as it’s already neck and neck.

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

According to the official San Diego Comic-Con 2016 schedule, a Pokemon GO-related panel will be held at the expo.

Niantic CEO John Hanke will be leading the proceedings. Hanke “will examine the past, present and future of extending games beyond the screen and re-imagining reality through the lens of Ingress and Pokemon GO.”

Niantic’s panel will take place on July 21 between 5 PM and 6 PM.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 17 Comments

Pokemon GO only just came out a few days ago. Of course, new features will be added to the game over time.

One feature Niantic will be interested in bringing in the future is trading, which company CEO John Hanke acknowledged as a “core element.” It’ll tie into the app’s virtue of players interacting with each other in virtual and real worlds.

Aside from that, Tech Insider reports that other new elements planned include more ways to play with Pokestops and Gyms. Currently, Hanke stated that they’re only in Pokemon as “very most basic versions”, though in the future, it’ll be possible for players to “customize their functions in other ways.” Niantic is also working on a global leaderboard so that players can see who’s the top trainer.

That’s not all though. Improvements are also on the way for the AR technology. Hanke said what’s currently in the app is “great first step,” but there’s more they can do. Regarding Pokemon GO on dedicated AR devices, Hanke teased: “That may be a fun thing to take advantage of.”

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 18 Comments

Pokemon GO can only be downloaded in three countries at the moment: the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The Pokemon Company did say earlier this week that the app is planned for Canada, Europe, and South America “soon”. Aside from that, there haven’t been many updates.

Speaking with Business Insider, Niantic CEO John Hanke said Pokemon GO’s rollout in other regions is “paused until we’re comfortable”. Hanke’s comment was in response to server issues plaguing Pokemon GO since release due to player overload. He added that the company is working on a fix.

Hanke also addressed the success of Pokemon GO thus far. “We thought the game would be popular, but it obviously struck a nerve,” he said.

Hanke went on to say that Niantic has already made strides in fixing connecting issues through “a great run” of server availability yesterday evening.

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

It’s no surprise that Pokemon GO has been experiencing issues connecting since the app launched earlier this week. The extreme amount of traffic has led to downtime and player frustration.

Thankfully, the Pokemon GO team is aware of the problems, and is actively working on the situation. An official message from the game’s Twitter account states:

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News, Random | 33 Comments

Update: Shayla told Kotaku that she did not capture the Pokemon she was looking for since she stopped playing to call the police.

“[The police] didn’t really know what [Pokemon Go] was. They’re were just like ‘okay.’ I was like, extremely scared, I didn’t know what to do…I was shaking and crying.”

All sorts of stories have been popping up since the launch of Pokemon GO. A few have been heartwarming, others have been unexpected, and some have been downright strange. We aren’t going to be posting too many of them since they’re a bit off-beat for the site, but there is just one we’ll share here due to how odd (and yet very sad at the same time) it is.

19-year-old Shayla Wiggins was playing Pokemon GO earlier today… and happened to come across a dead body floating in the river. She was hoping to capture a creature from a natural water resource. That’s when she took a glance at the shore and saw something in the water. After realizing what was happening, Shayla called the police, who arrived quickly.

Detectives believe the body had been there for less than 24 hours. Additionally, police are saying that “the death appears to be accidental in nature and possibly that of a drowning.”

For something a little more upbeat, Polygon has a story on how Pokemon GO is bringing together. GameSpot also published something about a new father catching a Pidgey as his wife gave birth.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 46 Comments

When you begin Pokemon GO for the first time, you can catch one of three Pokemon. In a nod to the original games, Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle are all available. But there’s one extra Pokemon you can obtain to start out with: Pikachu.

The process is rather simple. You just need to walk far away enough from the three Pokemon presented. They’ll respawn a few times, but Pikachu will take their place after you do it four times. This isn’t something you can do in your house since you’ll need to walk a notable distance.

Game Informer shows how it’s done in the video below:

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 6 Comments

Pokemon GO launched this week in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Other territories such as Europe and Canada are also going soon.

To play Pokemon GO, you naturally need a mobile phone – either Android or iOS. The game’s support site breaks things down further in terms of supported devices.

That’s as follows:

Android

Android 4.4 to Android 6.0.1
(Android N will not supported until the official Android release)
Preferred resolution of 720×1280 pixels (Not optimized for tablet)
Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G)
GPS and Location Services
Intel CPUs are not supported

iOS

iPhone 5+
iOS 8+
Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G)
GPS and Location Services
Jailbroken devices are not supported

On another note, we’re aware that there may be intermittent issues connecting to Pokemon GO’s servers. That was to be somewhat expected given the large influx of users to start out with. Hopefully things will be a bit smoother in the days ahead!

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 4 Comments

Data from industry-tracking intelligence firm Sensor Tower sent to GamesBeat indicates that Pokemon GO is currently the top-downloaded app on iPhone in the United States. It managed to reach that spot in less than five hours. Interestingly, that’s one-third of the time it took for the mobile hit Clash Royale to reach the same spot earlier this year.

Sensor Tower also says that Pokemon GO is already the fifth top-grossing iPhone app while outgrossing the Clash Royale and Clash of Clans games. Also, to compare, Miitomo’s highest position was 73 on iPhone’s top-grossing chart.

Pokemon GO is also available in Australia and New Zealand. The app is sitting at the top spot for both downloads and revenue in both countries, for those wondering.

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