Winter is Coming, Pokémon GO
As I walked around NYU’s Brooklyn campus in MetroTech Center, holding my phone and sliding my left thumb on the screen, a group of high school girls were seemingly laughing at me in a low volume indistinct chatter: “this guy is still playing Pokémon GO!”
Perhaps Pokémon GO is not cool anymore among youngsters. As far as I know, I am indeed the last person I know who is still playing this game. I want to keep this guilty pleasure of mine around for a little longer and witness its demise.
However, being teased by several high school students might not lead to a conclusion that Pokémon GO is not cool any more. Judging from such situation, anyone with proper statistics education would tell that the sample size is too small and biased any way. But the population numbers don’t lie. Earlier in late August, an article on Bloomberg pointed out that Pokémon GO had already been in decline.
After Pokémon GO’s explosive debut, resulting the biggest mobile game in US history. Interests in this AR(augmented reality)-based game has been diminishing over time. The game is hugely different from the previous Pokémon game products by Nintendo, the Japanese company that owns the Pokémon brand.
Pokémon GO’s popularity on Google is on the same level as augmented reality. According to Apptopia, on iOS platform, Pokémon GO’s numbers are not looking good, with number of downloads dropping by 33% and revenue almost halved from the last 30-day period.
What does Pokémon GO and the augmented reality behind it has to do with cities and urban studies? Pokémon GO was able to change the life in cities in a tremendously, by making its users walk around and explore. People spent more time outdoors in order to become a better Pokémon trainer in this game.
However, winter is coming, and there’s no doubt that people will be less motivated to stay in the cold weather for a couple minutes extra. With their hands deep in the pocket, Pokémon GO might as well hibernate, or even disappear from their phones. Will Pokémon GO survive the winter? Further, will AR and VR impact city residents’ life in some other form? It will be interesting to find out.
