Pokemon Go became an overnight phenomenon soon after its release. In fact, profe
ID: 3823076 • Letter: P
Question
Pokemon Go became an overnight phenomenon soon after its release. In fact, professors at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, recently published an article which asserts that the game promotes psychological well being. And there is an Easter event taking place through April 20th. If you don't have the app installed on your mobile device, you might want to do so for this discussion question.
In no less than 100-words, describe Pokemon Go in the context of chapter 12; Building Information Systems. Your post should describe the current state of the app as well as the name of the original game which lead up to it (hint, look here). Make sure you show the source(s) of your evidence in the form of a link. Your post should also include reference to what is meant by "Augmented Reality," a feature of the game. And last, discuss how this game derives revenue for the development team; e.g. how is it monetized?
Explanation / Answer
Pokémon Go (stylized Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. The game was the result of a collaboration between Niantic and Nintendo, by way of The Pokémon Company, and was initially released in selected countries in July 2016. In the game, players use a mobile device's GPS ability to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player. The game supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items.
Pokémon Go was released to mixed reviews, with critics praising the game's concept and the incentive to be more active in the real world, while criticizing frequent technical issues that were prevalent around the time of the original launch. Despite such reviews, it quickly became a global phenomenon and was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide.
At launch, the game suffered from frequent server outages due to extreme usage. Frequent crashes and authentication errors plagued the game's release and persisted for several days. For the first two days after launch, players were unable to access the game through their Pokémon Trainer Club accounts; only google-based accounts were able to gain access to the game. Servers again suffered frequent outages in Australia on July 11; players blamed people in the United Kingdom for bypassing local servers and using Australian ones to play the game before its official release.On July 16, a few hours after the release in many European countries, the game's servers temporarily went down. The outage was claimed by a hacking group called "PoodleCorp", who said they used a DDoS attack to take them down, although the problem was fixed later that day. The next day, the servers went down again as the game was launched in Canada. John Hanke issued an apology for the server issues at San Diego Comic Con 2016, stating "we weren't provisioned for what happened".
Pokémon Go rapidly rose the American iOS App Store's "Top Grossing" and "Free" charts. The game has become the fastest game to top the App Store and Google Play, beating Clash Royale, and it became the most downloaded app on the App Store of any app in their first week. Within two days of release, it was installed on more than 5% of Android devices in the United States, according to SimilarWeb, According to SensorTower, the game was downloaded more than 10 million times within a week of release, becoming the fastest such app to do so, and reached 15 million global downloads by July 13. According to SurveyMonkey the game became the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21 million active users on July 12, eclipsing Candy Crush Saga's peak of 20 million. By July 15, approximately 1.3 million people were playing the game in the Netherlands, despite the app not being officially released in the country at the time. On the day of release in Japan, more than 10 million people downloaded the game, including 1.3 million in the first three hours. By July 31, the game exceeded 100 million downloads worldwide, according to App Annie and SensorTower. On August 8, Pokémon Go reached the milestone of over 100 million downloads on Google Play alone after barely 33 days on the market.
Through in-game purchases, the game generated more than US$160 million by the end of July, with App Annie reporting that Pokémon Go had generated around US$10 million in revenue every day that month.The same month, Sensor Tower reported that the game had passed more than US$200 million in worldwide revenue, beating every existing record set by Clash of Clans and Candy Crush by a wide margin. On August 12, 2016, the Financial Times reported that Pokémon Go reached US$268 million in revenue after five weeks counting only the U.S., British, and German markets. The average daily usage of the app on Android devices in July 2016 exceeded that of Snapchat, Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Due by the game's massive popularity, several app developers became focused on developing similar augmented reality (AR) apps using available software development kits (SDK). By September 2016, Pokémon Go had generated more than $440 million in worldwide revenue, according to SensorTower. Pokémon Go reached the milestone of $600 million in revenue after only 90 days on the market, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so.