It’s official, Pokémon GO is due to start field testing in a regional beta which should mean thatPokémon GO will be released by the Summer assuming the testing goes well. In addition to this, the Pokémon GO talk at GDC 2016 was cancelled by Niantic in order to make way for the beta testing and the launch for the game. The GDC talk for the game was scheduled to go into great detail and also allow attendees to test the game first hand.
Pokémon GO is an augmented reality mobile game that brings Pokemon to the real world; players will find Pokemon as they travel and can catch, train and battle with the ones they encounter. It has also been confirmed that an additional piece of hardware will be released along side the game, Pokémon GO Plus is a wristband that alerts the user when a Pokemon is nearby which means players don’t always need to be on their mobile device. The game itself is going to be free to play however the wristband extra will need to be bought.
The game is being developed as a collaborative effort between The Pokemon Company and also Niantic is is well known for their own augmented-reality mobile game, named Ingress which has a cult following. Nintendo is also contributing to the development of the Pokémon GO Plus device. The mobile app will be available for both Android and iPhones however it is not available for Windows Phone.
There have been many release date rumors for Pokémon GO that range from February to December and until an official release date is announced, fans will continue to speculate. What has been confirmed however is the field test in Japan which will take place this month, currently no other regional test have been announced but Niantic did add in their reveal that other tests will be coming with the potential of other markets being included in the tests.
Now that the beta field tests for Pokémon GO has begun, it shouldn’t be too much longer before an official release date is revealed for the game. The first field beta test will take place in Japan this month however other markets may also receive their own field tests at a later date; fans are hopeful that tests will also occur in the USA and also in Europe.
Pokémon GO is on a steady development pace for release later this year.