Pokemon GO! Spells doom for Virtual Reality

Pokemon Go is the biggest video game phenomenon since… Wii Sports? All Pokemon Go is Ingress with Pokemon instead of portals. I know game developers who have been addicted to Ingress. Goes to show the power of the IP.

“I am playing Pokemon Go because I need to walk outside.” This was said to me by a 30 year old woman who NEVER plays video games.

Back when the Wii launched, I imagined something with the Wii-mote where you could play Duck Hunt with it but play it outside… like shoot the fantasy ducks in the sky. This is somewhat where I thought.

The secret to the Wii’s success was that it did the OPPOSITE of Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality is about REMOVING reality and REMOVING you from the world (and people). Wii did the opposite. Wii brought people together and the games did not remove you from the real world. People liked the Wii’s mission. They wanted their own house parties and thought it great to be bowling or playing tennis with the motion controller.

Pokemon Go, as that woman’s reason for playing it, is ironic in video games because we always associate video games with STAYING INSIDE. But is this true? Is this fair?

VIDEO GAMES ARE ABOUT BEING ALONE. No they aren’t. Even from the beginning, this wasn’t true.

VIDEO GAMES ARE ABOUT NOT BEING SOCIAL. But PONG and Donkey Kong started out at bars. You had to go outside to go to the arcade. And consoles have always been about multiplayer gaming.

So why have we assumed video games are about being inside? Even with the mobile cell phone games, we assumed that they were mobile games, not OUTSIDE GAMES. The paradigm shift matters.

Motion games were great because it forced us to re-realize that a video game wasn’t sitting around. Pokemon Go is making everyone realize that a game doesn’t have to be inside.

It is expanding our definition of gaming. This is why there is so much excitement for it. It is attracting all sorts of players.

We could even enter a generational divide where ‘old school’ video games meant playing games inside while ‘new school’ games meant playing video games outside. Sounds shocking to you? Welcome to future. Your grandparents were probably shocked at internet, computers, and lasers. Time marches on.

Nintendo’s stock is soaring.

We need to pay close attention to Nintendo at the moment. This Pokemon Go could transform the entire company. Then again, Pokemon Go could be a ‘fad’ (oh, that word! Remember when they always used to say it!?) that vanishes within a couple of months. We will see.

Not really, one's a fad app on a platform notorious for them, the other is a new entry to the most lucrative medium out there.

They can both coexist, and both fail too.

Eh, disagreed. The AR it uses is very primitive (and while cool to see, ultimately gimmicky and actively detracting from the experience). Moreover, pitting AR and VR against one another in some sort of battle misses the larger point- AR is the end game, VR is a very important step on the road to it. For AR to flourish, VR needs to take off.

VR is doomed but not because of a free mobile game. Its doomed because there are not many people wanting to drop $500-800 on a silly ass headset to play games looking like a fvcking clown.

“I am playing Pokemon Go because I need to walk outside.” This was said to me by a 30 year old woman who NEVER plays video games.

I assume you miss that part.

I get it. This doesn't doom VR, because VR was never appealing to that audience to begin with, at least not right away. Me having a small cake to eat, and then you getting a larger cake to eat for yourself and eating that cake, doesn't make my cake magically not exist, even if it is smaller than your cake.

Chinpokomon Go...

Stops VR. :P

@Blabadon: Have you played it yet?

Good post. I agree AR looks really promising right now and I see a bright future for it.

However, from a gaming standpoint Pokemon Go is really shallow.....like Star Wars Battlefront Shallow but worse. And if battlefront tells us anything, it's that shallow games can have a big beginning but can taper off quickly: Battlefront player count is down, and not even 2 months after release retailers slashed the price to $40 or below.

Go! will need updates to keep fans engaged. It will have a user base, but in it's current state there's no way it will have Twitter like numbers for long.

@charizard1605: no intention to, but I walked my niece two miles yesterday to help her catch some and teenagers were everywhere.

Agree with Blab that they are not mutual exclusive at all. They satisfy different demands pretty much (ofc they compete some what as different forms of entertainment). VR is also not anti-social per se at all as you can meet up in a virtual space together with soemone from across the world and solve problems together.

There have been activities to do outside together since forever. Some people still chose to sit in front of a screen and play Elder Scrolls for 100h. Don't see why Pokemon Go would change that.

Ahh. I was hoping for your take on it lol.

But yeah, even at its absolute worst, it's an app that gets people to go out and play, I mean, not much wrong with that.

@charizard1605: I did play it a bit, it's pretty stupid to be honest

I think it's a terrible Pokemon game, but a pretty neat AR experience, if only becauseof the gelocation.

If you were smart, you wouldn't compare smartphone games to virtual reality.

You really think AR is the end game? I mean the Matrix was VR, not AR and it seemed pretty advanced :). Why would I wanna shoot monsters in my little apartment instead of riding across the field of some fantasy landscape? I think VR is by far more compelling.

I will say though that I think AR has more non-gaming related uses than VR.

We'll have to wait for MS AR headset. I'd like to see them find a way to make it less obtrusive. It could easily be the future.

Neither the home console ended the arcade nor the other way around. AR, when done correctly, is it's own kind of experience. Pokemon Go is like the World of Warcraft of AR. The mass appeal to its audience should not be mistaken for some massive paradigm shift for gaming but as a template of things to get right for the genre.

I'm saying this as a level 9 Pokemon trainer with at least one Gym in my city.

Pokémon go is cool but this can't be all that is expected from Nintendo lol

Why are the two mutually exclusive?

Not at all. Pokemon GO's AR experience is new and has its own appeal. It doesn't detract from VR in any way. The two do not compete against each other.

Yeah, there's your target group. Everybody else should realize that flicking your fingers at Pokemon is even more shallow than Angry Birds. Also if you only leave the house when there's a Pokemon to catch there's something seriously wrong with you. "I need to walk outside." Oh? Then do it. It's not that hard.

Don't get me wrong. It's cool and all and I bet it could amuse me for around 15 minutes which is okay for something that's free but let's not act like this is going to stop people from playing more uh... gamelike games.

You connect to an environment limiting device every time you turn on a console or gaming PC. Don't be daft. You have not been running around your neighborhood with your XBox in a backpack all this time. Please spare us the Hololens marketing hyperbole.

Why the hell would you compared Pokemon Go to VR? That makes no damn sense and no, I'm not playing Go, screw that. I got my handheld to take anywhere.

I said spare us from the hyperbole, not give us a second scoop.

I meant in terms of real life applications- AR is naturally going to be more significant than VR.

Why would I buy a Scorpio when I will have a 2000 or 3000 GTX?

Don't worry my friend! You know that a version of GO! will be on the NX handheld. Nintendo isn't going to let this quietly fade away.

Well wii sports was the rage, for a while. I can see that happen with Pokemon Go, I remember Flappy Bird, and that's about it I know there are more mobile games but that's the only one I've played and that was huge not too long ago. But hopefully they make Pokemon better by updating it and fixing their shit and making sure pokestops and gyms aren't in shady places.

They already confirmed biweekly updates and including new features including new stops and gyms.

Wait, is it really a handheld hybrid console after all?

I think they are going to make expansions to it.

No confirmation of hybrid. But patents indicate a dedicated handheld.

@Shewgenja: HoloLens never needed to be tethered to hardware, so HoloLens doesn't need an Xbox One to be tethered, try again!

VR is kinda boring, i rather put my trust in Nintendo, they are always super fun. Please save us Nintendo, dont let gaming die.

Awesome in depth analysis. Nintendo always innovating gaming with bout perfect implementation and amazing timing.

I dont want to be like them weirdos humping fake dolls. I want to be like Ash catching cool Pokemon in reals world. Fack that weak shat.

@bunchanumbers: then all we need is better potato servers.

This thread is about taking logic and flushing it to come up with an asinine connection.

AR > VR but both are novelty.

@Pedro: what are you talking about? The game shoes how much money lonely cows spend on VR, when AR is affordable

One does not exclude the other. I alternate between classics and modern games. I will also alternate between social and a-social games. As long as there are gamers there will be a market for all types of games.

I dont see a app on a mobile platform killing VR.

VR and AR aren't mutually exclusive brainiac.

No, the game shows that Pokemon is a very viable IP regardless of the platform.

I would totally play a Pokemon themed Doom 4 mod.

Angry Birds and Candy Crush were also top dogs not that long ago. Just saying dude.

That said, far more hyped for Sun & Moon than I'll ever be for this.

They were never top dogs to this degree, the comparison doesn't really hold.