What can we learn from PokemonGO?

We are almost certain that you already know about PokemonGO , an incredibly popular mobile game.
This article is not an overview of the game itself, it will be about its impact. We will try to look behind the scenes and look at the situation in terms of marketing and product creation . Therefore, even if you are not passionate about PokemonGO, this post may still be useful to you. Its author is Tobias van Schneider, who often expresses interesting and noteworthy thoughts.

I PokemonGO zazarepila instantly. There are many reasons for this, but nostalgia has become the main one for me. As a teenager, I played Pokemon on my Gameboy Color for hours.
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Now PokemonGO is back to become the most popular paid app in the iOS Store in just a few days. And people pay not only for the game itself: they spend a lot of money on purchases in the app. According to the Sensor Tower, PokemonGO is now making more profit than any other iPhone application in the US. To date, the game has about 10 million downloads, although nothing has passed since its launch.



If you believe Forbes, then it comes to the fact that PokemonGO will have more daily active users than the Twitter platform. Of course, it is still too early to compare, but it must be admitted: for several days this is a solid achievement, especially if we recall that the game has not officially come out outside the US.

So the question is, how did PokemonGO achieve such popularity?

There are usually many reasons for this, and there is simply no universal recipe. But there are several points that deserve attention.

1. Background

In 2012, the application developer Niantic launched a very similar game called Ingress on Android, and in 2014 on iOS. Perhaps you heard about it, perhaps not, but 12 million people played it. Ingress is the same game in augmented reality mode as PGO, but with a different storyline.

In fact, PokemonGO borrowed technical aspects from Ingress, but took as a basis a more well-known story and a well-recognized brand.

All of this suggests that Niantic already had a lot of experience when launching PGO. And because this success can hardly be called unexpected. In addition, Niantic seems to be a Google company, which explains its excellent ability to handle geolocation services.

2. Availability

I think this is very important. PokemonGO appeared on iOS and Android at the same time. I don’t remember a game developer or other company running their application on both platforms on the same day.

In addition to this, there is no confusing registration process. You are logged in using your Google account and you are done. It would be even more convenient to use Facebook, but perhaps Niantic - like (former) Google - had its own reasons for doing so.

3. Gameplay

If we talk about the game, then PokemonGO literally checks every nook and cranny. No explanation is required here. Get down to business and get the first awards is very simple. In the game there is practically no educational introduction - there is simply no need for it.

PGO has everything that makes an RPG successful. From raising the level of your own hero and catching the first Pokemon to collecting items during walks through the streets.

Everything happens very quickly. Unnoticed, you spend a couple of hours playing a game.

Feedback in the game works instantly. This is similar to checking notifications from Facebook or Instagram. A new Pokémon can lurk right around the corner, and its captivity brings no less pleasure than clicking on the red circle on the Instagram notification or updating the tape. And I am sure you do this regularly.

The gameplay leads you smoothly from one trigger to another, rewarding along the way. In terms of design, PGO is flawless. Yes, there are a lot of bugs in the game, it gave me failures every minute, but I still rebooted it, because I just wanted to play. She hooked me.

In addition, PokemonGO seriously relies on word of mouth.

It is not possible to make friends and share with them something. It makes you take screenshots and show off your progress in other social networks.

It's cool that PGO doesn't have a list of friends. Since the game is played in augmented reality mode, you have to go to people and communicate with them . It inspires you to interact with strangers, and, thanks to petty tricks, you realize that you are not really alone. For example, it shows you on the map "hot spots" with high activity, suitable for meetings.

Even if none of your friends play PGO, you will get to know someone very quickly. This is the magic basis for the rapid spread of PokemonGO. Many other games and applications suffer from chicken or egg problems. Their story may be great, but first they make you add friends. And if you do not have them yet, then you simply refuse to play. This is too high a price just to find out if you will like it.

But what is the impact of PokemonGO?

For the past few days I have been walking around Brooklyn with an iPhone in my hands, trying to catch a Pokemon. It was cool. Although I usually have little interest in toys for mobiles (most likely, I will quickly abandon this one too), I haven’t had such a cool experience yet.

Almost every corner I met people absorbed in the same application. It is clear that if someone is standing in a strange place, having sent his iPhone to the wall, he is unlikely to make a photo.

Yesterday, walking in the neighboring quarters, I met about 15 strangers working the same.

This game has a certain feature that I have not seen before in other applications. Since it uses augmented reality, there is a definite connection between the digital and real worlds.

I usually don’t talk to strangers buried in their phones, even if I see that they are playing the same game as me. But, since Pokémon exist to some extent in the real world, and I need to turn on the camera to see them, the barrier separating the two realities disappears.

On weekends, almost every time I noticed someone playing PGO, or they saw me, we started a conversation and interacted on a social level.

I do not leave the thought of what impact this game can have on millions of people suffering from social phobia and even depression. For those who rarely leave their home and is afraid to be among people.

I can’t classify myself as a social phobia, but I prefer loneliness, and being in big companies quickly exhausts me. I think I have never spoken with strangers so much while walking around the city, like this weekend.

Yes, you can argue that I myself am guilty of this and can talk to strangers and without any game. Perhaps this is true, but for millions it is easier said than done.

After a brief investigation on the Internet, I found thousands of other users tweets confirming my suggestion that PokemonGO can have a positive effect on psychological and physical health . Obviously, this is not a qualitative study, but ...

And now the question is: will PokemonGO last for long?

It is unknown, and talk about it is still early. But there are a couple of things worth mentioning:

1. PokemonGO has much higher potential than it seems now. I would suggest that her growth will soon stop, but a large enough group of regular players will keep her loyalty.

2. In fact, PGO launched another wave of augmented reality. Augmented reality has been popular for a long time (we talked about marketing trends here ), but in most cases it seems too smart or is used only for experimental purposes. I am pretty sure that after PokemonGO there will be other games and applications.

PokemonGO proved: the use of augmented reality may be appropriate.

If we talk about me, then, most likely, in a couple of days I will abandon this game, but not because. that i don't like her I just have little interest in mobile games in principle.

But the lessons taught by PokemonGO, for me - the designer and creator of the products - are valuable. Even if you do not like Pokemon or games in general, there is something to see and learn from.

PS We recommend another useful article on the subject of work on yourself - 25 productivity tools (and which of them you should not use) .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.