The Rise (and Further Rise) of Pokemon Go: product lessons learned from the hit game

The Rise (and Further Rise) of Pokemon Go: product lessons learned from the hit game

6 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://medium.com/@efeng/the-rise-and-further-rise-of-pokemon-go-product-lessons-learned-from-the-hit-game-392fe254e378

It was a glorious Sunday afternoon in the Bay Area, and I was drawn outside by the warm weather to nearby Burgess Park. Surrounded by basketball courts, soccer fields, a swimming pool, and a skate park, the choice of what to do was obvious, and that was to stare intently at my phone. And I wasn’t the only one. There were hundreds of people like me, making the park unusually crowded, paying no attention to the real world around them but instead focused solely on a more interesting virtual world on their phones. The world of Pokemon Go.

This Sunday, October 21st was a special day for Pokemon Go players, called Community Day, that would bring out millions of people into parks, malls, squares, and other meeting places around the globe. People of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds but all showing a common tell — a phone in one hand, making spinning and flicking gestures with the other, walking in the physical world to catch things that only exist in the digital world. And October 21st was not the only day when the Pokemon Go crowds form. There are actually Community Days held every single month, all eagerly anticipated with the fanfare of a major world event — Sunday’s Community Day was covered by hundreds of media outlets ranging from Newsweek to Forbes and beyond.