Pokémon Go: A Draw to Main-line Gaming?

Pidgey from Pokémon Go. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer Pidgey from Pokémon Go. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
Pidgey from Pokémon Go. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
Pidgey from Pokémon Go.
Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer

By Adam Miklas
Contributing Writer

Released in July of this year, Pokémon Go broke app sales and became a mega hit.

Being downloaded around 500 million times helped it to become a world-wide phenomenon.

At one point, it was used more than the most common social networking sites, such as Twitter.

No one can deny how big Pokémon Go has been.

Even after a huge decline in users, the app is still going strong, ensuring that this is not just a passing fad.

Even people that don’t like Pokémon all that much are addicted to playing Go.

However, none of this would have ever happened if not for the original smash hit, Pokémon (Red version and Blue version) released for Gameboy back in 1998.

This was what started it all and the series is still going strong to this day.

It has now become the second best-selling video game franchise of all time, selling more than 279 million units worldwide.

While the main series of games have been very influential to many cultures around the world, no one can deny the impact of Go.

In this age where some people would rather play on their phones than on a completely separate system, it seems more beneficial and profitable to make more games on phones.

However, Pokémon is primarily a video game series, not an app. The newest iterations of Pokémon, Sun and Moon, are supposed to be released this year.

Since Go has gotten many people interested in Pokémon, could it be possible that this could draw more people into the main line Pokémon games?

Many people do remember Pokémon from their childhoods and Go helped some rekindle their love for the franchise.

Is it possible for those people to get back into the main series of games now that they remember how fun it was to find and catch Pokémon back in the 90s?

There are also a ton of people new to Pokémon, so could they be drawn to the main games as well? They’re similar enough to Go so that people will be familiar enough with the main concept, but will have much more to do than what Go offers.

Many companies do spinoffs (a program or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work) to advertise their main product.

Pokémon is no exception. If fans of Go and the main series all bought the newest games, the possibilities (and records to be broken) would be amazing.

The thing people find addicting about Go is walking around finding Pokémon in real life, fighting other Pokémon, and claiming gyms for their team.

With the exception of doing this all in real life, you can do these and much more in the main games.

It’s a similar experience, but with much more to do. There is the possibility that people will not be interested and that’s fine.

However, those who never heard of Pokémon before Go that wish to learn more, can pick up the games for themselves.

Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are due out Nov. 18 for Nintendo 3DS handheld systems.

Email Adam at:
amiklas@live.esu.edu