Pokemon Go has been on the minds of many over the past few weeks, and now Battlefield 1 publisher EA has weighed in on the augmented-reality creature catching game. CEO Andrew Wilson believes that what Niantic has done with Pokemon Go is significant and said that EA is working on AR experiences as well.
“[Pokemon Go is] a great blend of an IP that we have known and loved for the best part of 20 years and a new technology that introduces that to a new audience through mobile devices,” Wilson said. “What you’ve heard from us is that we have been working on both VR and AR for some time. We’ve made some announcements around VR in mobile and on console with PlayStation VR, and we’re going to continue to invest there.
“As you can imagine, we are energized by the success of Pokemon Go. We have tremendously strong brands that are unbelievably social in nature where we believe that participation at the community level through AR will heighten that experience. We’ve been working on some things for some time and will continue to work on those, and we’ll be ready to launch them at a time where we think we can better engage communities through AR.”
EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen noted that Pokemon Go has brought in a lot of “new game players,” but he said that EA hasn’t seen any lost revenue from its mobile games since the release of the AR Pokemon game.
In recent news, Pokemon Go got an update that removed a broken feature that was intended to help you track down the elusive creatures. Additionally, tracking apps such as PokeVision and PokeRadar have been shut down. Niantic has since responded to the backlash this created, saying it plans to “improve the underlying design” of the tracking feature.
“The original feature, although enjoyed by many, was also confusing and did not meet our underlying product goals,” Niantic said. “We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature.”
While you wait for the feature to return, you can read our article on why Pokemon Go is broken without tracking by GameSpot’s Alexa Ray Correia.
For more Pokemon Go stories from around the world, check out GameSpot’s news roundup.