Pokemon Go Dev Already Working on New Projects

With Pokemon Go's success, it wouldn't be surprising to see similar games pop up on phones. Niantic CEO John Hanke told Game Informer in its October 2016 issue that he welcomes developers to the party and even has some projects in the works that will be built upon the Niantic platform.

Niantic's first foray into this type of game was with Ingress, a game where you capture landmarks. Pokemon Go uses a lot of the information collected by Ingress, and Hanke says more games could as well.

"[T]hat's always been our strategy to build up a platform underneath a game that can be used for other games, and frankly other experiences that may not exactly be games, but are still within that area of exercise, discovery, and social interaction," Hanke said.

"The Niantic platform is very much a part of our long-term vision and we have some projects that are in the early stages now that will be built on top of it so you can definitely expect to see that from us in the future."

When it comes to competition, Hanke fully expects to see other games take advantage of location and augmented reality.

"I think it's healthy," he said. "There is definitely room for multiple successful games in the category. I think it is a really fresh area for game designers, developers, and publishers to explore with new kinds of gameplay. It's an area where there can still be a ton of innovation.

"It's a positive step for everyone to bring games out into the real word and give people the motivation, the excuse, to get out, get some exercise, see new places, and hopefully have good healthy interactions with other human beings."

Hanke added that Niantic plans to "innovate and do new stuff inside of Pokemon Go." One of these things is the upcoming Buddy system, which will allow players to choose a Buddy Pokemon who will "appear alongside [their] Trainer avatar on your profile screen, adding helpful bonuses such as awarding Candy for walking together."

In related news, Pokemon Go has reportedly made $440 million.