Why Do People Love Pokemon Go?

Any entrepreneur knows that disrupting a market is one of the best ways to succeed. What Pokemon Go has achieved is complete market disruption.

Pokemon Go has garnered well over 25 million users in the United States and Nintendo’s stock price has doubled since the game’s release. This is one of Nintendo’s biggest successes in recent memory, and the game has gone on to garner more social media attention than Netflix, Amazon and other major companies. But why is Pokemon Go so popular?

There is one thing that Pokemon Go has done that no other game, app or company has achieved yet: creating a bridge between augmented reality and mainstream success.

With the success of Pokemon Go, there is no denying that augmented and virtual reality is on the rise. Pokemon Go is such a simple idea at its root, but it is accessible enough to have gained the attention of people across the globe. The most exciting part about Pokemon Go is that it’s just the beginning of utilizing augmented and virtual reality in a feasible way.

Eventually, augmented and virtual reality will play a role in our daily lives. AR and VR will constantly stretch into the way we gather data and information. By analyzing this information, we can make the internet of things smarter and we can make life safer. While this is the future, both AR and VR are finding the most success in entertainment. Aside from Pokemon Go, the Oculus Rift has changed the way gaming developers think. But augmented reality stretches beyond gaming.

One company I’m excited about is CrowdOptic following its tie up with Sony and the Denver Broncos that lets spectators get an enhanced view of the football field including player stats, replays and photo sharing. CrowdOptic is on the front lines of improving life by using augmented and virtual reality. Using technology and smart eyewear and smartphones to improve live streaming, they are creating the next step in the way we view and engage with entertainment. Enabling people to “look through walls” and inherit each other’s’ views, Business Insider’s Julie Bort called it “a technology so cool that we’ve never seen anything like it.”

CrowdOptic’s middle wear for wearables understands where devices are aimed in common and can layer on top of a Pokemon’s location. Like a game upgrade, CrowdOptic’s software could be used to share other Pokemon Go players’ views and make the game even faster, more interactive and more fun.

CrowdOptic is run by a number of visionaries, some of whom are ex-NFL players. Their goal is to change the way we live stream events, such as an NFL game, to make sure that the viewer is getting the best experience possible. Imagine the impact that combining virtual and augmented reality with live streaming can have. One of its deployments at the San Francisco Zoo monitors the wolves exhibit by looking around corners and looking right through structures that would normally obstruct a view.

While the majority of success in the present may lie in entertainment, CrowdOptic is also looking for other practical uses for VR and AR. The CrowdOptic Eye can be used by doctors to stream surgeries to better inform the next wave of healthcare professionals, and emergency vehicles can live stream injuries or disease to hospitals to make better, faster decisions that could save lives.

Practical virtual and augmented reality devices are no longer ideas of the future. Pokemon Go has taken augmented reality in such a simple way and disrupted the entire smartphone gaming community. Seeing the market success that Pokemon Go has had within a few weeks of its US release is inspiring and encouraging. Augmented reality is here, and people are ready to embrace it.