Wild Pokémon will appear in real life

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are collaborating on a new and promising game, called Pokémon Go. Fans of the Pokémon franchise will be able to track virtual Pokémon with the GPS system in their smart phones, and battle each other in the real world. The ultimate dream of Pokémon fanatics is finally coming true. Pokémon GO is planned to have a bèta version in winter this year, and is coming to iOS and Android in 2016. The wildly successful Pokémon brand is a good example of total branding and the ways convergence  and collaboration is drastically changing our experience and use of games and the media.

 

          In 1995 the media franchise Nintendo introduced Pokémon, which soon became the worldwide phenomenon we know today. The Asian art style cartoon first appeared on Japanese television. After the official release it was adjusted for Western consumers. A few changes were made in order to make the show more suitable for European and North-American audiences, for instance they changed the typical Japanese style dumplings into Americanized doughnuts.[1] According to Henry Jenkins, a professor specialized in Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts: “Japanese media producers had created a complex set of tie-ins linking their comics, animated films, and television series to toys, which allows them to capitalize quickly on successful content and bring it to the largest possible audience.”[2] The same principle can be applied to the series of Pokémon. It became immensely popular for instance in The Netherlands. Even now, practically every student (and maybe even their parents) can name some Pokémon characters, such as Pikachu and Charizard. Not only the television show became popular, the different products created for the fans became in demand as well.[3] This trend is called total branding. There are even a few Pokémon Jets.[4] The new product in the line of total branding for Nintendo is the new Pokémon GO app: an intermediated game which is using convergence and collaboration in several ways.

          The Pokémon GO app is not the first game based on the popular series. The gaming industry has been, and still is, an important part of the Pokémon brand. The franchise makes use of synergistic strategies in order to collaborate between different companies in the gaming industry and across different media platforms.[5] The Pokémon GO app is a collaboration of a Japanese company The Pokémon Company which created the series, with the gaming company Nintendo. These synergistic strategies consist out of flexible business networks within the same industry. The intention is to create an industrial network that can help exploit cultural properties extensively for the use of merchandising and profit making, with the help of different media channels.[6] A form of this multi-mediality is the transformation of the animation show into different products across different media. Therefore the collaboration consists both out an economic part and a cultural part. The new economic and cultural synergy for the company Nintendo is the app Pokémon GO; an augmented reality app for smartphones.[7] Neccesary for using this app is a wearable watch (not a smartwatch). This watch connects the GPS system on your smartphone by Bluetooth. Thereby it registers and gives a signal if a certain Pokémon is nearby, for than the player will have to use his or her phone in order to catch the Pokémon. The main focal point of the videogame is the wide spread and ongoing distribution of the Pokémon brand, everywhere and every time you use the app.

            The system of this app is developed by Niantic Labs, the same company which helped design Google Earth. The platform of another augmented reality game, Ingress, was used in order to create this game.[8] According to Dave Their from Forbes Tech site: "The game taps into that primeval urge to horde and collect, which I think is one of the most powerful motivators of gaming behavior." This motivation is combined with the reality of moving around in the real world. The experience stimulates players to see their actual surroundings in a completely different way, as was planned by Nintendo. Nintendo first held back from smartphone games, but since the rising market demand for smartphone apps they needed to change their initial view and gave in to the market.[9]

           Thus Nintendo and Pokémon are engaged in media convergence on several levels. For instance they use technological convergence to create an app with augmented reality available on every smartphone.[10] The companies have initially tried to do this with the handheld gaming device Nintendo DS, but this wasn't accessible enough to a wider audience. The main reason for this was that not everyone wanted to buy a new console for this particular game only. Also Nintendo and the Pokémon developers are converging digitalization processes by exploiting a uniform medium. [11] This creates easy and wide ranging access for audiences to the app, but it is also an integration of numerous technological networks making large scale merchandising possible.

          Another aspect of Pokémon GO is that there is an economic convergence in the communications sector, since Nintendo decided to work together with the production company behind Google Earth. While they are each others competitor, working within the same industry structures, they are collaborating on the app. On this project there was a need for each others respective expertise and specialization.[12] This also links to the political convergence, since the industry proceeds into working with media policies toward one (supra-)national communications policy.[13] The copyright of the products lies both with Niantic Labs and Nintendo. This is because these companies did not converge but decided to work together in order to create this app. For both the brands there is immediate profit to be made, since Niantic Labs are now seen as the experts in augmented reality and Pokémon/Nintendo becomes popular again. Another expected effect is the increased selling of merchandise, for example of the app-watches. Both companies are interested which ties up with the concept of economic convergence. Hereby both industries can gain a profit, because their product is aimed at a large audience with interest in both the field of augmented reality and entertainment in the form of experiencing the Pokémon universe. 

           This leads to socio-cultural convergence, since the aim for Pokémon GO is to bring their users together through the app. For instance there are planned events where game players meet each other in the real world, when rare Pokémon are said to appear in a certain place at a certain time. With these specialized Pokémon meetings the company aims at a strong participatory culture, to transform the audience into ‘prosumers’ and co-producers of the game in order to create a collective experience.[14] Since Pokémon is still popular among consumers it leads these companies to thinking of new strategies in order to keep the audience interested in new developments. 

       The cultural convergence, in relation to the socio-functional convergence in telecommunication, shows a repurposing of (in this case) total merchandising and creating cross-media formats. In order to connect audiences through globalized technological channels, it is necessary to create such cross-media formats like an app.[15] Therefore this app can become part of the daily routine of the audience, thus becoming a social activity on one hand but also something which can be used as a leisure activity or as a form of entertainment.[16]

          However, this leads to a difference between convergence and a new form of collaboration between different industries. What differentiates convergence from collaboration is not strictly defined. Therefore the question must be asked what are the differences between collaboration, convergence and corporate conglomeration. The effects of media convergence show a lot of resemblances to the results of collaboration or it may seem like corporate conglomeration. How hard it is to differentiate between convergence and collaboration is shown in the case of the Pokémon GO app. 
    

          Another aspect of international and global convergence created by this app is the transnational regard for different perspectives and exotic styles, as a sense of pop cosmopolitanism.[17] Even though the app might seem as something which is used for the sole purpose of making a profit for the companies involved it also brings into contact numerous people across the world just like the original Pokémon series did on television.[18] Therefore there is a ongoing cultural exchange between the East and West through   the imagination, which changes the way they look at the world. The use of the Pokémon app can provide an easy and accessible communication platform, and serve the industry by increased profit and brand familiarity. A win/win situation for both consumer and producer, since it introduces new insights and new channels for the emergence of a global culture.[19]

                 

Tweet: Media convergence and synergy for industries are essential for economic and cultural profit, especially when it is linked to globalization. #PokémonGO

Intials: 
A.D.
E.T.
J.M.D.O.M.
M.v.d.V.
M.v.R.

Bibliography:

Boyes, E., ‘UK paper names top game franchises’ in: GameSpot UK (10-07-2007) accessed on: 26-02-2006.

Helfland J., and J. Maeda, Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture         (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001).               

Jenkins, H., ‘Pop Cosmopolitanism, Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence’ in: Fans bloggers and gamers: exploring participatory culture (New York University Press, 2006).

Latzer, M., ‘Media Convergence’ in: Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy (University of Zurich, 2013).

Vaughan, N., ‘Maximizing Value; Economic and Cultural Synergies’ in: The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011).

Links:
AP, ‘’Pokemon Go’ game announced for Android, iOS smartphones; Location-gaming app Pokemon GO from Nintendo will bring Pokemons to your smartphone via http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/pokemon-go-android-ios-launch/, accessed on 14-09-2015.

Discover the Pokémon in the Real World with Pokémon GO!, via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sj2iQyBTQs (09-09-2015), accessed on: 14-09-2015.

Thier, D., Why ‘Pokemon Go’ Is The Perfect Move For Nintendo, via http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2015/09/11/why-pokemon-go-is-the-perfect-move-for-nintendo/ (11-09-2015)              
              accessed on 14-09-2015.

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[1] H. Jenkins, ‘Pop Cosmopolitanism, Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence’ in: Fans bloggers and gamers: exploring participatory culture (New York University Press, 2006) 160.

[2] Ibidem, 159.

[3] E. Boyes, ‘UK paper names top game franchises’ in: GameSpot UK (10-07-2007) accessed on: 26-02-2006.

[4] J. Helfland and J. Maeda, Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001) 63.

[5] N. Vaughan, ‘Maximizing Value; Economic and Cultural Synergies’ in: The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011) 181.

[6] Ibidem, 169.

[7] Discover the Pokémon in the Real World with Pokémon GO!, via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sj2iQyBTQs (09-09-2015), accessed on: 14-09-2015.

[8] D. Thier, Why ‘Pokemon Go’ Is The Perfect Move For Nintendo, via http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2015/09/11/why-pokemon-go-is-the-perfect-move-for-nintendo/ (11-09-2015) accessed on 14-09-2015.

[9] AP, ‘’Pokemon Go’ game announced for Android, iOS smartphones; Location-gaming app Pokemon GO from

 Nintendo will bring Pokemons to your smartphone via http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/pokemon-go-android-ios-launch/, accessed on 14-09-2015.

[10] M. Latzer, ‘Media Convergence’ in: Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy (University of Zurich, 2013)
128.

[11] Ibidem.

[12] Ibidem.

[13] Ibidem, 129.

[14] Ibidem.

[15] Ibidem, 130.

[16] Ibidem.

[17] H. Jenkins, ‘Pop Cosmopolitanism, Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence’ in: Fans bloggers and gamers: exploring participatory culture (New York University Press, 2006) 171.

[18] Ibidem, 152-153.

[19] Ibidem, 172.