Nintendo has announced that a wearable accessory for Pokemon GO, their augmented reality game for mobiles, will be released next month.
The accessory is called Pokemon GO Plus and works with “any compatible smart phone that has the Pokemon GO application installed”. It pairs via Bluetooth LE and, once everything is setup, will vibrate whenever a Pokemon is nearby.
“With the convenience of not having to look at your smart phone, simply press the button on the Pokémon GO Plus to attempt to catch a Pokémon while you are out and about,” Nintendo’s landing page says.
Miyamoto also confirmed that the accessory would be available for $US34.99; local prices for the wearable aren’t currently available.
Miyamoto showing off the Pokemon GO+ during a livestream
The implication is that Pokemon GO itself will be released in July as well, although nor Nintendo or Niantic has come out and expressly confirmed this. Nintendo added that you’ll be able to press a button within Pokemon GO that will be able to direct users towards a store selling Pokemon GO+.
Nintendo added that you can power or level up your Pokemon in Pokemon GO by collecting candies in-game. “If you catch 25 Squirtle, and you get 25 Squirtles a candy, if you use that you can evolve Squirtle to a Warturtle,” a translator relayed during the livestream.
You can rewatch the full announcement below.
Comments
9 responses to “The Pokemon GO Accessory Is Out Next Month”
Huh, a real-life version of “our paths have crossed, we must now do battle!”?
Or Grindr for Pokemon enthusiasts.
One of the two.
Why not both? Nerds are cute.
If only our phones had a vibrate function that could be utilised to do the same thing.
Then you have to pull your phone out, open the app wait for it to load, go through the battle. etc etc.
This is just press a button on your wrist.
Well, you’ll most likely have to have the Pokemon Go app running on your phone for this to work, since I doubt a Bluetooth LE device is going to have its own GPS or other complicated logic.
The only way I could see this working without the app constantly running is if it is treated as a separate way to catch Pokemon. Could it just be a step counter that vibrates at random times and then reports how many times the user pressed the button next time it talks to the app?
Good point. As an ingress player, phone in pocket was a legitimate way to ‘play’ between portals. I guess if you were doing something similar in game, travelling between two waypoints, this could be useful. Will wait to see how my play style ends up before I consider this though.
It has this functionality but the immediacy of being able to just tap the button to action a catch is most likely far quicker than re loading the app.
*Wartortle
Ive been playing this for months now.
Pokemon Go is NOWHERE near ready for release… its a buggy unfinished mess 🙁
Who knows how far behind the build they have been playtesting is. Most certainly a separate branch.
Played it during testing… game got old quick, very repetitive and disappointing. You’d be better off playing Ingress or an actual pokemon game by Nintendo.