There's little doubt that Pokémon Go is an important release for Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and developer Niantic. Though there's a little ambivalence about it in the Nintendo Life community (at least among those in the E3 live stream chat) it's clearly a big deal to members of the broader public; it was, after all, one of the most-searched video game terms in the US in 2015.
We already know a lot about it, and it's been in public beta testing in a variety of territories. Now it seems it's very close to rolling out fully, confirmed to be targeting July during the Nintendo Treehouse segment on the game on day two of E3.
Somewhat humorously, Shigeru Miyamoto seemed to put the developers on the spot during the Q & A segment, using his authority to announce that the Plus peripheral will launch in late July. Cue some nervous laughter and squirming, with one of the developers quipping that he'll have to "get back to work".
The Plus peripheral was shown off a little - it links to your phone and acts as a shortcut for you to play the game without checking the app itself. It vibrates and flashes colours depending on what's happening, and you can simply press its button to try and catch Pokémon on the go.
It won't come cheap, however. In the US the add-on will have a recommended price of $34.99. Pokémon Go itself will be free, and the Plus gadget is rather neat - whether many will deem it worth that cost will be interesting to see.
Nintendo of Europe has now also confirmed a late July window for the Plus accessory, and it was confirmed in the E3 Q & A that, naturally, the app will be available at the same time or potentially sooner.
So, are you excited about Pokémon Go, and will you be picking up the Plus accessory?
Comments 33
Pokemon Go Plus looks neat.
I like the idea of not having to look at your phone all the time too. 🙂👍
Is it worth 34.99?
In my opinion, provided the game is genuinely fun to play, it's probably worth the money.
We haven't seen much. why are they releasing the Pokemon Go plus before the actual game? They need to release it first and gauge interest and user interaction, so it does not become another Miitomo
crazy that it's already sold out on Amazon.
That price is ludicrous!
Yay, I get to play this before Miitomo is released in my country.
The plus is too expensive.
It's the amiibo strategy for mobile phones.
Is there a reason this seems so expensive? I know there must be a Bluetooth chip in it to work with smartphones, and an LED light, but what else? There are MP3 players for that price with screens and controls and headphone jacks. Roku, Firestick and Google Chrome cast cost $35 and they are streaming devices which seem to do more than this. Does this at least have a watch on it, or calculator, GPS compass, something I'm missing? They should st least have it swing open to have a watch inside. I jumped around the video but all I can find are talking heads.
@rjejr The reason is that it's made by The Pokémon Company.
For the quality of the actual game this price is ludicrious. I'm a huge Pokemon fan and I'm not coming anywhere near this thing.
The fact that enough people think this is worth the money that it would sell out astounds me. It's highway robbery! Truly, the Pokemon Company can do whatever the hell they want.
I'll most likely skip on both the device and the game. I played Ingress for almost a year before I realised that it wasn't much of a game. It always felt like work to me.
I was going to get Pokémon GO+. Was. But this price is waaaaaaay beyond my budget.
And it's not even pretty, a Pokeball would have been nicer, but the price is exorbitant anyway.
not interested, in getting this right now.
Genuinely flabbergasted by the price. When they brought it up during the broadcast I thought it was a joke, seeing as they all laughed afterwards.
The price is too much for me for that gadget. I'll still give the app a try though.
While it's certainly on the high end, it's not exactly ludicrous. And ultimately it's optional to play the game. I've spent more money on physical games that ended being worth half this device in the end.
I am surprised it sold out, though. Wowzers.
It's FREE?? Didn't see that coming.
@RainbowGazelle I did take licensing fees into account, but I figured the people making this wouldn't be paying any royalties to anybody except themselves.
And I do know you were joking, but I did take the "Pokemon" label into account. I guess it's more of a "Apple" tax than licensing fees though.
OK, so I looked on Amazon, and for $20-$30 you can get a wide range of touchscreen MP3 playing watches w/ built in phones and even a camera. But they couldn't add a watch face to this $35 toy?
This kids well reviewed smart watch is $35.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B017WU924A?psc=1
$35 for a vibrating light hardly seems worth it. Why not make a watch that lights and blinks? It doesn't have to be all that smart, but at least make it a watch.
Ouch... I was hoping this would be around $20. I guess Nintendo can make way more money selling this than building and selling a comparable app for smartwatches.
If it was $19.99 I would of been all over it, but $34.99 seems a bit much. unless "impulse buy" kicks in, I'm happy with just the game.
Maybe if they have a tempting bonus like some in-game items and currency to help with the pricing. That would give more incentive.
I wasnt expecting it to cost more than 19.99 and even that is at the limits of my price comfort.
If this wasn't coming out next month, I'd consider getting it at the msrp since I don't want to be constantly staring at my phone while walking and using the app, but the Pokemon people are already getting my to buy an overpriced piece of plastic in the form of the Pikachu Pokken pad next month so that'll be it for now.
@RainbowGazelle its made by nintendo.
I'm not interested in the app, but it will be interesting to see all the initial reports from those who jump on it first thing and their thoughts, especially the "local" Pokemon available nearby. If people go crazy trying to "catch 'em all" in XY and ORAS and Wi-Fi trades so they can have a full Living Dex in their Bank, I don't want to see how some people are going to lose their minds trying to catch 'em all when certain Pokemon are supposedly only in certain regions.
15 to 20$ it will be a good price. 34.99$US is 45$CAN. I'm canadian by the way. 45$ is horrible for this false form Pokéball.
That seems like a steep price for the functionality of the go plus. If that's all it does I won't buy it, but if more features come out then I might.
I was expecting somewhere from 15-20, but 35!? How much can you sell a piece of plastic with a light for?
If buying the thing also counts for turning off microtransactions, like spending $30 on Pokemon Picross does, then that's not super unreasonable I guess, but if it's $35 for a blinking light and then you also have to pay for Great Balls, that's ridiculous.
In the condition Pokemon GO is currently in, a late July launch wouldn't be wise.
@KH22 its not sold out, I can still pre-order??
@Uberchu Yup, its available right now on Amazon.
Maybe they are gonna include digital content with the watch at least they better lol
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