‘There’s never been a better time to be a Pokémon Go player’: 10 years on, VP of game development says there’s plenty still to come josephine.watson@futurenet.com (Josephine Watson) | usagoldmines.com

When it comes to mobile games, few remain culturally relevant for a decade, and none have shadows that loom quite as large as Pokémon Go. Now in its tenth year, the app remains a phenomenon.

It’s undergone massive changes since it first launched back in 2016; just as much as its players, our phones, and the world around us. Still, there’s a fondness that bookended much of my early 20s that I share with many players old and new; it’s also one I felt radiate from Kim Adams, VP of game development, when we sat down to discuss the title’s legacy and future as it celebrates this significant milestone.

Spotting the Togepi plush sat just in the frame of my Zoom camera capture, Adams’ affinity for the game and its players was immediately clear: “Togekiss is my favorite, but Mr. Mime is a close second, just because Mr. Mime is so strange!”

Everyone has different potential

What struck Adams most upon joining the Pokémon Go team was the relationship between the players and the game. “There’s a loyalty and a love for the game that is really special, and I feel unlike any other game.“

“It’s how [players] have integrated the game into their lives. There’s a group in Austin, Texas, who meets every Wednesday night to raid together, and then they all go to this very small local restaurant to have tacos. That’s their thing, every week.”

Some groups use Pokémon Go as a vessel to organize park cleanups or local food drives, she says, and of course there are the many players who’ve met their life partner playing the game — one lucky couple even tied the knot in an official Pokémon Go wedding last year.

In numbers, that loyalty feels all the more tangible. “Ten years is a long time. We’ve had over 800 million people play the game during that time. People have walked over 50 billion kilometers. They’ve made almost a billion friends in the game. They’ve caught a trillion Pokémon, and that’s across 150 countries.”

For Adams, though, her proudest achievements boil down to how the team behind Pokémon Go “stayed true to our mission of inspiring people to explore the world together, and we haven’t really wavered from that.”

That evolution spans a decade of new features, from PvP battles and Buddies to more recent additions like Dynamax, with many built around the game’s core social foundations.

Adams feels “particularly proud” of the app’s first UGC feature, Routes, which launched in 2023. “When I go to a new city, I immediately look at what Routes are nearby, and I try different Routes so that I can see the neighborhood through the eyes of a local in a way that I couldn’t otherwise… we currently have seven million Routes in the game across the world.”

Whether it’s through Routes, Raids or rankings, Pokémon Go’s expansive audience is at the core of its success, and it’s something Adams seems acutely aware of. “I really love some of the smaller quality of life improvements that we’ve made with existing features, because we’re listening to players, right? Those always get a great reception because people know that we’re interested in making improvements continually.”

The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant

You never know what’s around the corner, but a global crisis like COVID-19 was unlikely to be on anyone’s business plan in the last ten years. So, how does an app with a core mission of going outside and playing with friends grapple with a pandemic that saw millions of people stuck at home?

Initially, with some difficulty, Adams explains, “When Covid first struck in March of 2020, we had three live events planned within the next three months. But of course, as things developed, it was literally illegal to go outside your home, depending on what region you were in in the world. So we had to cancel those.”

The problem almost became a philosophical one, in a sense. Adam contrasts her previous experience working with products that had “incredible tech in search of a purpose” with Pokémon Go’s reverse approach: “We started with this lovely mission to get people outside connecting, and we have this incredible and deep tech stack that supports that purpose… using the real world as our game board, and having a game that’s designed to play outdoors with other people is not always easy.”

As a result, the game had to see some radical changes to meet its players where they were. “We had to make some pivots to support indoor play, which we had never designed for before. But the great thing that came out of that was it forced us to imagine what live events could be like if thousands of people weren’t in the same physical location.”

That, she says, was the genesis of Pokémon Go’s global live events, making it possible for players around the world to join in the fun without being at a specific location. “Now we have the best of both worlds, where we kick off the season with three major live events across the world, and then we follow on with this global event afterwards.”

Later, the Community Ambassador Program launched in July 2022 as part of the Campfire app, cementing the platform-level approach to bringing players together by offering passionate players who love the game the chance to apply to become a community ambassador and host local weekly or monthly meetups.

“This program has totally caught fire: now we have over 3,000 across the world. At this point, we’re only limited to how quickly we can thoughtfully onboard people. The nurturing of those relationships is really important to us because it keeps our finger on the pulse of how players are actually feeling about everything that we implement into the game. We’ve even brought them into the office from all over to pick their brains.”

“It’s so great — I used campfire, and I connected with folks a couple weeks ago. I went to a local park that I hadn’t been to to play [with them]. I’ve raided in hotel lobbies with employees before. This community is really tight.”

If you don’t struggle, you don’t improve

Still, every rose has its thorns, and not every change to Pokémon Go has been received with open arms. For example, changes to remote raid price hikes, which allowed players in more remote areas or those with accessibility needs to join in the fun more easily, remain unresolved despite large-scale community outcry.

Despite this, though, Adams says the mission remains the same: “to inspire people to play everywhere in every community across the world.” To catch ‘em all, one might say.

That includes players in more rural areas who are most affected by the game’s distribution of players and in-game features; a group Adams remains committed to servicing. “Over the years, we’ve done major map updates where we’ve added two and a half billion spawn points, and a lot of those are in rural areas… with tens of millions of players every day, there’s never anyone who’s too far away from you who also plays Pokémon Go.”

There’s always room for growth though, she acknowledges. “I’m really proud of the strong, talented, committed team that we’ve built, who truly aspire to bring the best experiences to players every day. Along those lines, quality is an ongoing issue that we’re really looking at. We’re doubling down on this year.”

I asked what the team would do differently, given the chance, from its ten-year tenure, and what Adams shared shapes much of what we can expect in the years to come: “We would probably invest even more in the core foundations of the technical implementation of the game so we could really deliver more solidly on the promises that we make to players, so that’s something we’re taking a close look at.

“We’ve had a minute to breathe now post-acquisition and really take a solid look at how we make improvements. We’re also taking a look at design across the game; there have been so many elements added over the years that we’re doing a pass, making sure that everything is as straightforward as possible for folks.”

Adams points to the Pokémon Go Times Square takeover as a career highlight.

The future is now, thanks to science!

Pokémon Go has seen many evolutions in its 10-year history as a mobile app, but when I ask Adams about her wildest dreams for the future of the game, she reflects on some of her previous experiences in the XR space. “This is my personal wish — I’m not making a company statement — my personal wish is that as wearables continue to develop into something more robust and scalable and light, I’d love the opportunity to explore playing our game truly heads up and hands free.

“If — or how — that may come together is still very much TBD, dependent upon what happens in the hardware space, which we’re always tracking. I’m always having meetings, and we’re doing some experimentation on our side, just to make sure that we keep up with the tech, and when it’s ready, that is something that I would love to dig into further.”

I’ll let it be known in writing here that I pitched Pokéball-themed round-frame smart specs, for what it’s worth. Low-hanging fruit? Absolutely, but I’d have no shame in hitting the streets wearing those bad boys.

Beyond that, the immediate future for the app offers plenty to keep the team and players busy. “We’re cooking up some really exciting new features. We still have the rest of our 10th anniversary year with lots of fun things coming up. I truly feel there’s never been a better time to be a Pokémon Go player than right now.”

You can download Pokémon Go for iOS and Android via the App Store and Google Play Store.