Pokémon Go is one of the most iconic games in the industry. The augmented reality mobile title has been played by hundreds of thousands of players and generated more than six billion dollars in profit. But while it’s now a household app to most gamers and long-term fans of the franchise, it’s easy to forget its interesting backstory.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company first had the idea to create it back in 2014. They saw one of Niantic’s older titles, Ingress, and absolutely loved it.
At the time, Niantic was a subsidiary of Google. The companies got together and created an April Fools’ Day collaboration called The Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge. During the event, people could use Google Maps to find and catch Pokémon around actual maps. It was a huge hit and worked well.
A year later in 2015, Niantic branched off from Google to become an independent company. Tatsuo Nomura, who developed the Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge, joined them as director to start working on what would become Pokémon Go.
When did Pokémon Go release?
Pokémon Go was first announced on Sep. 9, 2015. The very first trailer was released at the same time. More details and actual gameplay footage of the handheld title were revealed a few months later on March 19, 2016.
The closed beta test happened in Japan on March 29, followed by Australia and New Zealand on April 25, and the United States on May 25. They all finished on June 30.
Related: Pokémon Go Fest 2023: All dates, locations, and full schedule
The official release happened a week later on July 6, 2016, but only in the countries that participated in the closed beta. It released in other countries in the weeks and months that passed, except for two—Russia and Turkey. It was then released in Russia on Sep. 11, 2018 and eventually Turkey on June 4, 2021. After that, it was truly global.
To celebrate the anniversary of its release every year, Niantic hosts the Go Fest—a real-world event at a specific location. It does, however, also include a ticketed online variant. It was the first official event run by Niantic and The Pokémon Company and has been running ever since 2017.
