Editorial Board
Pokemon Go: Irritating Harbinger of Something Great
Augmented reality could be transformative. But not just for entertainment.
It gets better.
Photographer: Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFPYou've heard of Pokemon Go by now, yes? It's the pervasively viral, madness-inducing, privacy-invading, weirdly alarming, metaphysically destabilizing new mobile-phone game from Niantic. It's potentially worth $1.8 billion a year. And it just may herald an important technological shift.
Conceptually, the app is fairly simple. Looking through their phones, gamers can see Pokemon characters superimposed on the world around them. The idea is to "catch" the creatures, and to pursue different varieties. The kids love it.