Without a doubt, ever sinceits release back in the summer of 2016,Pokemon GOhas managed to maintain a remarkably strong foothold in the hearts of gamers around the world due to the mobile augmented reality game being free-to-play and thanks to Niantic constantly supplying the title with fresh content. Naturally, the developer wants fans to remain engaged withPoGOfor as long as possible, and its creator, Niantic CEO John Hanke, has even expressed that he wants the game to be a “lifetime experience” for players.
This much was recently revealed by Niantic Chief Marketing Officer Mike Quigley duringPokemon GOFest 2018, with the developer’s CMO explaining that he believes the company to be “in a good position financially to be able to invest and double down on things.” This led to Quigley stating how Hanke and the studio could potentially choose to support bothPoGOand its previous ARG release,Ingress, in the future.
“John [Hanke] has talked even more recently about how these could actually be lifetime experiences and generational experiences where you could literally pass on knowledge or maybe even characters or that sort of thing.”
Considering the fact thatPokemon GOhas myriad offshoots, a slew of creatures to introduce into the game, and most importantly, the global brand recognition to attract droves more players as time goes on, there’s definitely a chance its longevity could be much longer than many originally thought, and will fit into Hanke’s plans. As far asIngressis concerned, though, while it still has a dedicated following – anda Netflix animated seriesto boot – it’s safe to presume that its shelf life will almost certainly be shorter thanPoGO’s.
Taking this all into account, many fans would surely be excited ifPokemon GOeventually existed as a game that would allow one to experience a seemingly endless amount of content that could then be passed down to others in future generations. Of course, we will simply have to see ifPoGOeven lasts that long, as it has only been available for a little more than two years at this point, and its popularity could fade. Nevertheless, with developers now having the capacity to consistently refine games with post-launch patches, it wouldn’t be to surprising to seePokemon GOin it for the long haul.
Pokemon GOis available now for Android and iOS devices.
