Pokemon Go Smartphone Game to Be Released Soon

By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor

Benjamin Snyder is Fortune's managing editor, leading operations for the newsroom.

Prior to rejoining Fortune, he was a managing editor at Business Insider and has worked as an editor for Bloomberg, LinkedIn and CNBC, covering leadership stories, sports business, careers and business news. He started his career as a breaking news reporter at Fortune in 2014.

Courtesy of Niantic Labs

Pokemon Go, a smartphone game for the popular Pokemon franchise, is expected to be released for iOS and Android devices by the end of July, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The game, which has been in beta testing both abroad and in the U.S., is being developed by both Nintendo’s Pokemon Company and Niantic, a company which makes augmented reality games and which is a spinoff of Google (GOOG).

The smartphone game will allow players to catch Pokemon in real time and in locations around the world, as Fortune reported last year. It also marks the first time Nintendo has developed a smartphone game for the popular franchise.

“We would work hard to let fans enjoy the game by the next month,” Tsunekazu Ishihara, chief executive of Pokémon Company said in an interview with the Journal.

 

There will also be a bluetooth device that will be sold separately and paired with the game, called the Pokemon Go Plus, which will be sold for $34.99 and allow users to play the game without opening their smartphones.

Nintendo, which owns the Pokemon franchise, has been celebrating the video game’s 20th anniversary this year.