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Comment by Mahn | Hacker News Reader

> Shows you just how much pent up demand there was for Nintendo to release games on mobile.

Does it? My impression is that there's a lot more people playing Pokemon Go than there are Pokemon fans. The IP no doubt helped, but I don't think that you can just release any Nintendo IP on mobile and instantly have the massive virality success of Pokemon Go. There's something more to it than that.

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Yea, count me as one. I have literally never played any Pokemon game before, and half-caught maybe one episode of some TV show featuring some comical evil cat villain thing.

But, I'm catching pokemon on my walk to/from work (makes it less boring, and doesn't make it take any longer). My wife is now dragging me to the park every other day to run around in circles catching pokemon.

I'd be interested to see some survey results on what percentage of people playing this are actually pokemon fans.

1. We know pokemon is a powerful phenomenon people get hooked onto. 2. You were previously not a fan of that phenomenon. 3. You now started liking that phenomenon. 4. The survey would show how many people started playing because they were hooked onto the phenomenon already.

I believe the high viral factor comes from going outside and seeing tons of people playing it and talking to strangers about it. That vitality has nothing to do with Pokemon specifically, but it's a factor that doesn't kick unless the game gets really big really quickly. And I think that initially enormous reception has to be largely credited to the IP.

I think any Nintendo IP would do well from the brand itself. But you're right. Pokemon Go is different. As someone who once obsessed with Pokemon 20 years ago, this game is like living a childhood dream. I'm pretty sure many other like me are what drove the initial traction. Social media did the rest.

Hell, it hasn't even released in Japan yet.

It was released in Japan today.

Technically, yesterday. Since it is Saturday here in Japan. I played Friday lunchtime and saw many others doing so.

Ah! Time zones are tough. I read a news article saying it was released about 12 hours ago; I should have guessed that it wouldn't have _literally_ been at the time the article came out.

I'm not a fan of Pokemon but I'm playing it now and then just to see what this thing everyone's fascinated by is.

Same here. Early 50s - played a bit - find the whole thing quite interesting.

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