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Comment by Chris2048 | Hacker News Reader

Chris2048·

would Pokémon Go succeed if it wasn't based on an 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.

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

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