As Pokémon Go celebrates its eighth year, Niantic’s Senior Vice President Ed Wu states that the game is still gaining popularity and gearing up for its 10th anniversary. In an interview with Eurogamer, Wu looked back on the journey thus far and discussed the exciting developments ahead of the game. Apparently, the player count is steady, and the game is as popular as ever.
In recent updates, the game’s overworld and encounter screens have received a complete visual makeover. This update helps the game connect the in-game world with the player’s real-world location and time of day. This was an issue that I’d seen plenty of times when I played. There are plans for further improvements, including more options for customizing avatars to allow players to express themselves within the game world. According to the interview, Niantic is also exploring ways to increase the variety of Pokémon spawns to better match the player’s actual geographical surroundings.
Despite its age, Wu says Pokémon Go is currently more successful than ever. He highlights the recent Sinnoh Tour event in February as one of the best weeks in the game’s history, surpassing even larger events like the annual Go Fest. Wu dismisses any reports of declining revenue, stating they lack access to the necessary data. He said the growth of their recently launched web store shows that Pokémon Go is financially strong. He even notes that the controversial change to remote raids last year had a negligible impact on the game’s growth.
“It’s not only healthy, but it’s growing. And we’re putting a lot of investment into ensuring it’s a great game and has really firm foundations for the next 10 years… As we gear up for that 10th anniversary, we want a refresh that’s befitting that next decade. We’re refreshing our avatar system next with a more improved experience, updated assets – a modern system that can offer more customisation.”
Ed Wu
Wu highlights the significant progress in addressing these issues despite facing technical challenges. The game’s global single-instance server, which connects tens of millions of players, has seen substantial improvements. Wu believes the lessons learned from Pokémon Go’s complex infrastructure will be foundational for future spatial computing applications.
Looking forward, Wu says there will be more big updates to Pokémon Go in 2024. These updates will be as important as raids and trading that were added before, and they’re meant to change how people play the game. Niantic’s new Routes feature has over 2 million player-made routes, which shows they’re still working to improve the game.
Wu highlights that Pokémon Go continues to prioritize real-world exploration while being receptive to insights from new Pokémon games like Legends: Z-A. I am pretty surprised by how the game is still growing, but apparently, the team is more confident than ever.
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