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Comment by petra | Hacker News Reader

Does one really have to go work there for a few years? Aren't there other ways of immersing yourself deeply ?

Is there another way of immersing yourself deeply in Spanish without going to a Spanish speaking country? Not really. It's the same concept really, it gives you an entirely different outlook on things. There are complex problems out there that a lot of people in big companies still don't know that can be solved with software.

Also to say no apps or games will be able to hit it big... Well, just look at Pokémon Go.

would Pokémon Go succeed if it wasn't based on an already popular franchise?

In this now-tortured analogy, think of the existing industry as the "already popular franchise."

Probably not. Niantec's previous augmented reality game, Ingress, was not even close to as popular, despite having most of the same gameplay characteristics. Working with the Pokemon franchise was a brilliant move.

It's not just the popularity of the franchise. The game would not have worked nearly as well with, say, the Star Wars franchise.

The reason it worked is because Pokemon itself is about traveling to different places and finding rare pokemons. That's literally the app - there is 100% congruence.

Like you said, it's about travelling and finding Pokemon. That's what kids who saw the anime and played the game wanted to be able to do. Pokemon GO delivers on that desire.

I think it also helps that Pokemon GO simplified the experience from Ingress which makes it more accessible to a wider variety of people.

I agree with both of you. I didn't mean to imply it was just any random franchise agreement that made the difference and that there were no improvements to gameplay. The integration with the pokemon world and improved game play accessibility are two things that made working with that franchise in particular brilliant. Working with the Star Wars franchise would not have been brilliant. Although with the success of pokemon go I expect there will be a lot more themed games in the future.

I think the success of Pokemon GO will open up people to the possibilities of AR apps and hopefully, we'll see more apps that use AR and the GPS in innovative ways.

There will always be apps (and particularly games) to hit it big. Stop this End of History crap.

I would say yes, as physically being on the inside gives you access to all of the nuances of a particular industry. Outside consulting companies and contractors have a hard time encapsulating these subtleties and, as such, is a major reason as to why enterprise software written for a specific industry is generally quite terrible.

> Aren't there other ways of immersing yourself deeply ?

Side projects.

Finding a co-founder/business partner with deep experience in the industry. (Worked for me.)

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