The Pokemon GO Experience: A Location-Based Augmented Reality Mobile Game Goes Mainstream

Pokemon GO is a location-based augmented reality mobile game based on the Pokemon franchise. After the game was launched globally in July 2016, it quickly became the most successful mobile game in both popularity and revenue generation at the time, and the first location-based augmented reality game to reach a mainstream status. We explore the game experiences through a qualitative survey (n=1000) in Finland focusing on the positive and the negative aspects of Pokemon GO as told by the players. The positive experiences are related to movement, sociability, game mechanics, and brand while the negative experiences emerge from technical problems, unequal gaming opportunities, bad behavior of other players and non-players, and unpolished game design. Interestingly, the augmented reality features, safety issues or the free-to-play revenue model did not receive considerable feedback. The findings are useful for academics and industry practitioners for studying and designing location-based augmented reality game experiences.