Pokemon GO

It's safe to say at this point that Pokémon GO has become quite the cultural phenomenon. While it'll be interesting to see whether it holds the public's long term attention, the absolutely staggering numbers this new app has generated is nothing to be ignored. While the initial release is still a buggy and incomplete beast, it actually owes a lot to its predecessor, Ingress.

John Hanke -- CEO of Niantic -- recently discussed the game with Mashable, opting to talk about the mapping system. Alongside the fact that hanke and several developers and Niantic had a hand in the creation of Google Maps, Ingress -- a similar ARG form Niantic -- was used as the foundation for what became Pokémon GO.

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Portals in that game were converted into gyms and Pokéstops, so it's no surprise that there's been a robust amount of places to go. Moreover, the company is constantly listening to fans and creating new landmarks, so expect to see more places over time. When discussing how Pokémon are chosen for areas, Hanke explained that calculations are made based on things such as the proximity of water, climate, vegetation, soil, and rock-type. This uses an entirely different set of data, which is evidently constantly evolving.

Towards the end of the discussion, Hanke talked about the possibility of the game coming to AR goggles. While he believes that the technology still has some maturing to do, he seems open to the idea of supporting those types of ideas in the future:

A lot of those systems will probably only work well indoors in the beginning. But I think certainly within a decade we'll see that kind of immersive visual eye wear that you could wear outside and play games like Pokémon Go, and see Pokémon appear in a three-dimensional context.

What do you think? Are you enjoying Pokémon GO? Are there many Pokéstops or gyms in your area? Drop us a comment in the section below.

[source mashable.com]