The Pokémon Company has announced a brand-new Pokémon game that will be coming to mobile devices in 2016. It's called Pokémon GO and is being developed by Niantic, a studio known for its augmented reality mobile games. As such, it should come as no surprise that this new Pokémon title will be in that same vein, tasking players with traveling to different real-world locations to collect, battle, and trade the cute little monsters.
The game will be available via Google Play and the App Store next year, at which point an accessory called the Pokémon GO Plus will be available. It's a small Bluetooth device made by Nintendo that can be worn on the wrist, alerting users when special events are near by flashing and vibrating.
Here's what it looks like.
Pokémon GO will join The Pokémon Company's growing lineup of mobile apps, including the recently released Pokémon Shuffle, which I'm hopelessly addicted to. While yes, an actual traditional entry in the series for iOS would have been nothing short of a dream come true, at least we're seeing the company continue to expand the franchise and broaden its audience.
That said, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that silly wrist strap. Sorry, Nintendo!