Pokemon Go Shows the Rise in Virtual Reality Gaming

First Posted: Oct 07, 2015 03:07 PM EDT

Virtual reality is spreading out into everything from video games to high-tech equipment used in space. Now, though, VR is possibly getting one of its biggest pushes yet in the form of Pokemon Go.

In most Pokemon games, you wander around the world as an avatar and capture monsters that you then train and use to battle other Pokemon trainers. Needless to say, the game usually consists of mashing buttons as you navigate your avatar through the world and order your Pokemon into battle. But imagine if, in order to actually find Pokemon, you physically had to travel through space. This is exactly what Pokemon Go promises.

In fact, Pokemon Go is actually a joint venture between the Pokemon Compnay, Nintendo, and the AR developer Niantic, which is responsible for the highly popular game, Ingress.

The idea is that the game is run on your smartphone. With GPS technology, the game tracks where you go, and you can capture Pokemon along the way. In addition, a device that's called Pokemon Go Plus, which is essentially a Nintendo-built Bluetooth smartwatch-like device, can tell you whether you approach a Pokemon or not by vibrating so that you don't have to be on your phone constantly.

While the game in and of itself is intriguing, it also shows a rise in what is, essentially, virtual reality. Instead of sitting in front of a computer screen, players now go out into the world and explore actual space while playing a game.

Currently, the details are still sparse when it comes to Pokemon Go, though it does use the same GPS technology as Ingress, which is a game that involves capturing different regions in the physical world for what is essentially your team. Like Ingress, Pokemon Go will also allow you to interact with other users in your vicinity, battle your Pokemon against one another.

Currently, Pokemon Go is set to be released at some point in 2016.