Welcome back to our near-daily roundup of Pokemon Go news from around the alternate reality that we all live in now.
- The US House of Representatives’ committee on energy and commerce is apparently very interested in Pokemon Go: Earlier this week, it sent a letter to Niantic CEO John Hanke expressing its concern over the game’s data usage and whether Niantic is properly informing consumers about that usage. It’s a bit tone-deaf, considering all the other apps that are so much worse.
- Pokemon is coming to the big screen. Nintendo’s Pokemon subcompany and Legendary will team up for a live-action film featuring Detective Pikachu. Production begins in 2017, by which time everyone will be over this and on to something else.
- Pokemon Go has surged to 30 million players and raked in $35 million in revenue — that’s according to an estimate by app data firm Sensor Tower.
- Aerodactyls: That’s the Pokemon my current state is apparently hunting the most, or so says a map by the folks at Decluttr, which tracks Google searches.
- What’s the #2 app for iOS users right now? Poke Radar, a map sharing app for Pokemon players. Think of it like Waze, only instead of reporting mattresses on the highway and cops occupying speed traps, you’re reporting where you found your last Butterfree.
- Still having technical issues with the game? You and everybody else, to the point that Niantic’s sluggish reponse to fixing it has become a meme. Kotaku is now calling it “a total shitshow on a technical level.” Wheeee.
- If you’re into ARGs but find Ingress too sci-fi and Pokemon too cutesy, maybe give Real Fantasy a look. Its launch press release this morning says it’s a new fantasy ARG on iOS and Android that’s a “rival” for Pokemon Go. “Pokemon Go – You are going down!!!” it says. “Three years in the making, Real Fantasy is a mobile game unlike any other. While Pokémon Go just scratches the surface of GPS gaming, Real Fantasy delves much deeper, taking the technology to an exciting new level. So forget about the Pikachu! Get out there and track down the Minotaur and Medusa, Zombies and Vampires, Dragons and Dire Wolves and vanquish them!”
