No.244

Finally, we have successfully presented Pokémon GO to the public.
I, Masuda, have received on Twitter a lot of pleasing messages from around the world, including:

“I’m very looking forward to trying it! I’m excited!”

“I want to go on an adventure right now!” and

“My childhood dream has come true.”

People’s support, among others, gives me power.

There is nothing more encouraging for me as a person engaged in making things for people. I am happy.

I sincerely appreciate support from you all!

While I am participating in the development of Pokémon GO for the construction of its world view and for its game design and music, we are trying to make it enjoyable as a location-based game by removing and dismantling the world view of Pokémon as well as common knowledge in game design, and rebuilding them into a new design.

There is still a long way to go in its development, but I’ll go on making the best things with Niantic so that people around the globe can enjoy them.

We hope to exert continued efforts to make products enjoyable for all, including Pokémon fans and Ingress fans across the world, and even for those with no experience of playing with Pokémon.

Toward the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, we express our hearty thanks to all.

Pokémon GO is scheduled to be released for smartphones (on iOS/Android) in 2016.

We hope you’ll like it!



Images from the presentation
http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/news-from-the-pokemon-go-announcement/#

Video footage
Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKUwVYUKii4
United States
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sj2iQyBTQs
España
https://www.youtube.com/user/PokemonOficialES
Italia
https://www.youtube.com/user/PokemonUfficiale
Deutschland  
https://www.youtube.com/user/Pokemonoffiziell
France
https://www.youtube.com/user/PokemonOfficielFR

Niantic,Inc.
http://www.nianticlabs.com/index.html

Media
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/09/10/reader-discussion-how-far-would-you-travel-to-catch-a-pokemon.aspx
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-10-gps-enabled-pokemon-go-app-announced
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-go-announced-for-androidiphone/1100-6430435/
http://www.shacknews.com/article/91207/pokemon-go-is-a-new-mobile-game-from-the-creators-of-ingress
http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/10/9300011/pokemon-go-android-ios-smartphones-nintendo

No.243

October 31, it was the chestnut festival day in Spain!

On this day, we visited a school called
El Col-legi Lestonnac de Barcelona for a lecture.

Before a visit we were a little nervous, thinking what
we should do if the pupils knew nothing about Pokémon.
To our delight, however, they all knew about Pokémon
and they welcomed us cheerfully with big smiles!

They asked us a lot of questions eagerly, including:
“What did you like when you were children?”,
“What did you want to be when you grew up?” or
“Why are you making Pokémon games?”

We answered their questions as best we could.
They were listening to us excitedly with twinkling eyes.
We were so impressed and felt happy!

Headmaster and teachers also were very kind to us.
They served traditional Catalan sweets.
They all said to us, “Come here next year again.”

Children laughed, clapped their hands and became serious occasionally.
We appreciate their reactions very much.

The more I talked, the more I was filled with emotion.

I thought that it was really good to continue manufacturing goods.

Last of all, I said a few words of thanks and told them
“I want to  continue making good stuff!” Then,
I got a lot of applause.

I was so pleased that I almost cried.

Moreover, I was handed a wonderful gift by two representing pupils.

The gift was pictures of Pokémon drawn by all the four graders
in Classes A, B and C.
The subject was “Pokémon in Barcelona”.
It thrilled me further! Truly, they were very good at drawing.

The gift contained about 60 pages and they were all lovely pictures.

I was really grateful to all the people in the school including
the children for giving us a wonderful opportunity!
We surely got a lot of power from this event.
El Col-legi Lestonnac de Barcelona was an excellent school.

This is the newspaper that reported on our visit to the school.
http://t.co/ybt2FtSw9Z

This is a video of TV broadcast that shows  our  visit  to  the  school.  It
starts about 42:55 on the image counter.
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/telediario/telediario-21-horas-31-10-14/2842522/


On November 1 and 2 we spent our time at Salon del Manga,
gathering information and participating in events.

First of all, we want to express our gratitude to
all the media including newspapers, TV stations and radio stations.
We surely bought the papers that reported on us, of course (laugh).



It was a little strange to us that the media consisted mainly of newspapers
and TV stations instead of gaming magazines which are dominant
in this  kind of event in Japan.

As expected, Salon del Manga also held these events.
I thank all of you for taking part in the cosplay
and the battle tournament.





This is the individual winner! Using the software game music,
she performed one-man play to warm up the event!


These three are the team winner! 
They expressed the beautiful view of the world!


These two got the special award!
They said they spent three months creating the costumes using card boards
and newspaper. It is exceptionally amazing!


This is the winner of the battle tournament!
To our surprise, he turned out to be the fourth place of Master Class
in Pokémon World Championships(WCS)  2014.
It was no wonder even Omori could not beat him.


Last of all, thank you very much for everyone who gathered at the site!
 



Now that I learned that everyone supported Pokémon
also in Spain more than I expected, 
I considered I should keep trying hard without just feelingthankful.
Now, I feel uplifted!

I express again my gratitude to everyone 
I met in Spain for your hospitality!

Chao!

No.242

What a wonderful achievement!

In Japan, we’ve already got the Greatest Award,
the Best Sales Award, and the Global Award at the Japan Game Awards.
This time we’ve got awards in England, too!

At the Golden Joystick Awards 2014,
the greatest game awards in England,
our Pokémon X and Pokémon Y were awarded
the Greatest Handheld Game Awards!

Those awards are the ones from the second oldest historic game awards
and chosen by users’ votes.

We thank so many of you who played our games
and we really appreciate your support.

We are profoundly grateful for you.

Also, with those people who worked on the challenging development tasks
and the localization staff who realized the world-wide simultaneous release,
I’d like to share this great news
that we’ve been awarded such honorific awards!






Those awards could not be realized without your hard work!

Chao!