Pokémon has always been a popular mainstream gaming and pop culture title for the past two decades. The title became even more of a sensation with the release of Pokémon Go which was much anticipated when it was first announced. It was developed and published by Niantic and similar to their previous release Ingress the game, Pokémon Go was an augmented reality mobile game that allowed the old and new fans of the Pokémon franchise to live their long-awaited dream of becoming an actual Pokémon trainer and caused them to be riled up in excitement. Pokémon Go was also a chance for new people to get into the franchise who had not played any Pokémon games before. Pokémon Go released on July 6, 2016, and quickly became the most downloaded app. It was also the app that earned the most revenue in 2016. Pokémon Go required the players to go outside and explore their surroundings in the real world to look for Pokémon and throw Pokéballs to capture them within the games integrated AR, while also looking for Pokéstops. Pokéstops were landmarks with which the players would interact; allowing them to obtain rewards to help in their Pokémon journey. The game was also determined to be a good exercise mentally and physically by doctors.

In terms of gameplay from the polished Pokémon fan’s point of view, the game started with the decent original Generation 1 151 Pokémon available for capture, amongst which the legendries were available for a specific amount of time or through events. The gym mechanics were also something that put gamers into a stride, as these locations had to be conquered and constantly protected otherwise they’d be taken by someone else. The game also introduced a system of three teams, of which you had to choose one to join. These teams had their mascots and were based on one of the three legendary birds of the 151 Kanto Pokémon. Players within a team could assist each other in protecting gyms and other mechanics.

The game was a very big hit when it launched but as time went on the game started to lose its popularity. This was mainly due to the servers being less responsive, or put on maintenance, all the time because the servers could not handle the number of players present in the game at a time,causing the game to keep crashing on the players. For those who were able to bypass the server issues, the features of the game at the launch were minimal, lackluster, and not working as they were supposed to which made the fans displeased and not playing after a while. Another reason for its downfall was that the game was not what the people hoped it was going to be as it lacked the ability for players to battle each other which was shown in the trailers for the game. It also lacked several of the game mechanics that the mainstream console Pokémon games had. Many people didn’t like the fact that they had to move about so much in the search for Pokémon as they were used to playing from a stationary position on their consoles and moving a player in the game. They also didn’t feel right to the people who liked to create bonds with their Pokémon as in Pokémon Go instead of fighting other Pokémon with your own to level up you had to get a candy of the Pokémon you wanted to train. To do that you had to catch many of the same Pokémon or trade your already caught Pokémon to a professor in exchange for some candy and train the Pokémon which is the strongest in the group you caught instead of the one which you caught first and created a bond with.

But after many years of Pokémon Go’s player base and revenue going down it started to increase again. It was because after hearing many of the fans complaints Niantic added new features and updates to the game which pleased the fans such as the long-awaited update of player vs player battles, team rocket battles, a buddy system that encouraged players to go out of their homes to walk with their favorite Pokémon, the addition of Mega Evolution, and weekly events to catch rare Pokémon to keep the game engaging and make the players keep coming back to play more. Nowadays it is hard for people to go out of their houses just to play a game due to there being lockdown because of the pandemic, so Niantic added raid passes which allowed for players to take part in raids happening from far away. As the game’s popularity started to rise again the people started to get reinvested in it and paid for micro transitions in the game to keep playing which made the revenue of the game reach an all-time high in 2020 which surpassed the revenue generated during its release when Pokémon Go was at its peak. With the addition of several new Pokémon from later generations, new game mechanics and features, and plenty of new events, the game went on to soar to new heights of popularity. Even five years after its release in 2016, Pokémon Go is still strong with its fan base and new events frequently to keep the players involved and ingrained into the game. If you’re looking to join in on the fun then be sure to check out the Eldorado Marketplace to have a head start at the game. Pokemon Go Account will let you experience the game at the best possible level and skip all the hard grind.

While we can never be too certain, Pokémon Go holds an important place in the future of the gaming world as it is one of the most popular games in recent times that brought AR to the mainstream public. These technologies will further be explored and who knows, someday Pokémon Go can act as inspiration for an update or brand new game that brings the world of Pokémon to ours through immersive technology. Until then, we can only wait to find out.