If you haven't heard of Pokémon GO in the last week you might be living under a rock. Pokémon GO is a free to play, location based AR (augmented reality) mobile game. It was developed by Niantic and published by The Pokémon Company and released almost world-wide on July 6, 2016.
Now. That was a whole lotta words to describe a mobile game so let's break it down a bit.
- Free to play: just means the app is free but there are in-app purchases.
- Location Based: gameplay evolves and progresses based on your location, typically using the built in GPS on your phone.
- Augmented Reality (AR): is defined as "a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. Graham, M., Zook, M., and Boulton, A. "Augmented reality in urban places: contested content and the duplicity of code." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00539.x 2012.
Basically you're entire environment is now teeming with Pokémon
and with your phone you're able to see them and catch them.
