Two men fell off a cliff. A teenager was hit by a car. A woman got stuck in a tree. The global phenomenon that is the new augmented reality game Pokémon Go caused all of these – and yet we’re still playing it.
Arguably the greatest pandemic since swine flu, Pokémon Go is a game that uses your smartphone or tablet’s GPS and camera to allow users to catch Pokémon – the very same fictional species popularised by Nintendo games in the Nineties – in the real world. To play, you physically have to walk around and find Pokémon, collect items, and battle other players. It’s not the first game that uses augmented reality to make users go outside, but it is the first that has earned its creators £10m in a single week.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
