Pokemon Go has certainly lost its grip on world-domination over the last year, but the game is still healthy, receiving consistent new updates and improvements to the app that’s keeping its player base alive. But with the announcement of their next augmented reality game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a few Pokemon Go diehards thought this was the beginning of the end for people who want to catch a Pikachu in their living room.
That’s not the case, at all. Not only would it be foolish to abandon an app that’s still immensely popular (just not so popular that people are walking into traffic or roaming city streets like zombies), but it’s not really how game development works. Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, released a statement to put worried minds at ease. They’re not going to abandon Pokemon Go, and they’ll be working to make it better and better while simultaneously creating Wizards Unite, which better not be a pixie-catching simulator.
Here’s their statement:
Just like many of you, we’re super excited about Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and are working hard with our partners at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and WB Games San Francisco’s development team to bring that to life. However, we–the Pokémon GO development team–want to say that we are 100% committed to creating an ever-changing and growing game that gets our players exploring, meeting each other, and deepening their connection to the Pokémon universe. We’re actively expanding the Pokémon GO development team to build many more amazing features in 2018. Stay tuned for an update next week on upcoming improvements to certain features.
Hopefully, the strides Niantic has made in Pokemon Go over the last year can be translated into Wizards Unite and any breakthroughs in Wizards Unite can be pumped into Pokemon Go. The best possible outcome is that we get two cool augmented reality games from Niantic. Here’s hoping.
(Via DigitalTrends)