Is Pokemon Go a fad, ultimately?

[dryingpan]

I hate hearing from the haters who claim that this game will fade into oblivion... I'm of the opinion that after the craze settles, there will still be a very loyal/faithful core of players who continue to substantially support the game.... http://edumuch.com/gaming/pokemon-go-review-2016/ basically I have the same opinion as the author of this piece.

Thoughts?

 

[EvaLiz666]

It depends on how well they listen to the player base and keep improving the product. Odds seem pretty good since the original Pokemon still has a pretty good fan base after all these years and they certainly seem to be moving into the right direction with Pokemon Go.

 

[notecard]

I've had thoughts that it might end up being a fad but seeing as it's so tremendously huge and also very different from what would normally be a fad, it's kind of hard to see it going down in popularity. But it'll probably happen sooner or later, but I'm not thinking for a while.

I think if they keep making updates and maybe even add the other 600 something Pokemon then it'll probably last extra longer

 

[Rocket-Brendon]

Pokémon is definitely not a faze. Fazes usually die out in about 2 years tops like Beanie Babies and Tamagotchi. Pokémon has and is still going strong for over 18 years.

 

[CoalCraft]

The initial craze will probably die off as people who were only really playing because everyone else was lose interest, but I expect it'll settle with a very healthy number of regular players, as long as they keep the updates and bug fixes coming.

 

[Squirrel]

As long as updates and regular patches are both used then I can see GO staying relevant for a very long time. The game will without doubt lose a decent portion of its member base within a few weeks as everyone and their grandmas are downloading it right now but I'm very confident that there'll be a strong userbase for a good while yet. A lot of the downloads GO got in its first week were novelty downloads from people who never really would play past level 5 but there's still going to be a lot of dedicated players left.

 

[lifeasleo]

i think it really depends on whether or not the company continue to develop the game, especially when new big ar games start coming out for ios and android

 

[notecard]

So according to Google, in the past month it exploded in popularity then kind of went down but now is at a high point slowly decreasing. so at least maybe this gives some insight:

Spoiler:

 

[jiipee95]

Well think about this. Pokemon Go was very hyped game. Pokemon is a well-known franchise all over the world. It's the first (?) free mobile game in the world of Pokemon.

Of course everyone wants to try it when it came out. Fans and not fans. The number of active players is going to drop down in the near future, but I think the game will last with a quite high active community if they keep updating the game and adding stuff in. It really lacks some kind of competitive feature like player vs player battles, which would make the game more interesting.

Also adding in never generations at some point is a must if they want to keep the game going. Once you have 151 Pokemon registered to your pokedex there's nothing to do after that at the moment really...

 

[Hiidoran]

Yeah, sorry to say I'm one of those people considering it a fad. Everyone has/is picking it up, and while I think we'll continue to see spikes of downloading/usage on the upcoming weekends, as you see in the infographic above, ultimately the app will fall out of favor for the next new craze.

I don't think the game will be gone forever though. There will still be a loyal player base with the fans who already liked Pokémon and the new fans who just really like this game to keep it going for a while. As long as there are good updates and bug fixed, I can see this being a very popular app for a long time.

 

[PacmanEternal]

Definitely not a fad. Lets be honest the only reason it never got this mainstream before is because u had to buy a videogame "system" to play it. Ur avergae bob isnt going to do that even if he is interested slightly. But make it FREE and accessible on any device and u got some magic!

With a steady stream of relevant updates (which you know is coming), this game will bring out the kid in a lot of people and will probably sustain momentum similar to that of the Wii providing they stablize the servers and glitches.

Nintendo just hit the reset button on their largest and most profitable franchise save ehh mario perhaps, and will probably reintroduce the entire pokemon roster again. Gona be a fun ride

 

[Astinus]

I see it as a fad as well. Despite the fact that it's Pokemon, the game will probably run the course as other free mobile games. Remember the craze of Angry Birds? It's still around because there is a loyal fanbase, and they keep updating the game (except for the core mechanics), but it's not as "mainstream" as it is now. I don't see Angry Bird merchandise all over the place like I used to. Even with the movie. (Which I also heard very little about.)

So while Pokemon Go has an audience and can update the game with new Pokemon and fixed mechanics, I doubt it will remain the phenomenon that it is now. It will still be around, but not all over the news where people who don't even like Pokemon are still playing it.

 

[Maserati777]

I have an inkling it won't be as popular when they add the other Pokémon only because right now of people playing it who aren't into Pokémon like it for one of two reasons.


There's only 146 Pokémon in the game currently, which is kind of a nice low number.


Or for nostalgia, they know the original 150 but not so much the later ones.

 

[Deníz1]

i hope it fades into the pastebin...... i hate pokemon go...all these "hip kids" now start buying POkemon X/Y (the worst games of Gen6...which already proves they know NOTHING about pokemon...) and think "yea i played Gen 1 /2...im so getting back into pokemon, its so Oldschool, its so 1991....Yea catch the wave bro everyone plays it..."

they are just following the trend, no brain idiots, following like the sheeps follow shepherds...
If you played pokemon for years, and think pokemon go is fun (WHICH I HIGHLY DOUBT! Pokemon on a Smartphone? u guys lost your mind?!) it might seem legit to like the game.

BUt all of these Trendwhores just "catch the wave", to raggle in nostalgia for 3-4 Month and then dump pokemon into the trash...
(but before they make all pokemon pllayers a bad reputation by claiming youve seen a murder, running in front of cars, putting others in danger while using your phone in the car... and so on.....)

 

[drizzlebits]

I think the attention will die down over time, so we are definitely at the peak of activity, but I think even after a lot of people stop playing, there will still definitely be a very large group that still plays.

That is, depending on how Niantic decides to continue development. It's new and fun now, so getting out of the house to go hunt Pokemon is exciting, but I wonder if people will become too lazy to put in as much effort if Niantic can't keep people engaged.

 

[Phoenixstarz]

for me this is the game ive been waiting for since about 1997, it will definately lose a large amount of players but untimately the question will be will they sustain enough players to cover the cost of the servers/staff to run the game and i would be very surprised if they couldnt do that. It will find itself a niche support and there will be plenty of money making opportunities for them.
There will inevitably be lots of clones of this type to come out probably in next few years but since pokemon has such a massive nostalgia factor there isnt many that could be bigger (Warcraft/Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings probably could be)

 

[KJ]

I think for those that grew up with Pokemon from the time it came to america but then faded away from the franchise, this is something for them. The average joe who grew up in the 90s with it are now tech people. While they may not want to sit on a 3DS XL and play the game, they always have their phone with/on them. This is something for them that they can do while they're out. I think bc of that it will have a loyal fan base. Yes it will die down but I can see this being around for some time.

 

[jiipee95]

i hope it fades into the pastebin...... i hate pokemon go...all these "hip kids" now start buying POkemon X/Y (the worst games of Gen6...which already proves they know NOTHING about pokemon...) and think "yea i played Gen 1 /2...im so getting back into pokemon, its so Oldschool, its so 1991....Yea catch the wave bro everyone plays it..."

they are just following the trend, no brain idiots, following like the sheeps follow shepherds...
If you played pokemon for years, and think pokemon go is fun (WHICH I HIGHLY DOUBT! Pokemon on a Smartphone? u guys lost your mind?!) it might seem legit to like the game.

Apparently you're not allowed to like Pokemon if you haven't played all of the games and been a loyal active fan for the whole time Pokemon have been around...

Yeah a lot of people play Pokemon Go because it's a trend. A lot of people haven't played Pokemon in years, but decided to give Pokemon Go a try because of nostalgia and it's free. A lot of people haven't even played Pokemon before.

But I don't think it's a bad thing. Some people will actually get back into Pokemon, some people might start buying those "main" games for handheld consoles. And the ones who are just playing cause it's a trend will get bored pretty quick and stop playing.

 

[BigBobby2016]

I'm pretty sure a lot of people will stop playing once they get their first phone bill.

 

[Phoenixstarz]

I'm pretty sure a lot of people will stop playing once they get their first phone bill.

unlimited data FTW!
ive noticed though im using about as much data this month than i usually would have done, i use a lot anyway but have been out the house away from wifi for much more this month so i dont think the game uses that much data at all. The only people who are going to get stung with big phone bill are those who probably didnt use their phones at all before and so had a small data limit because they didnt think they needed to bother increasing it