Phenomenal Success Of Pokemon Go Inspires A Fuji TV Documentary

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Pokemon Go has been immensely successful, so much that now Japan-based Fuji TV is producing a documentary on the development and worldwide success of the location-based app, according to Hollywood Reporter. The full documentary will air on Dec. 19 on Fuji TV.

Documentary covering origin and conception of the game

Fuji TV, an early investor in gaming giant Niantic, was given access to film the developer’s San Francisco offices for the documentary, entitled How Pokemon Go Changed the World. It was also filmed in other locations in Japan and the U.S. The documentary will come in both Japanese and English versions and will explore the origins of the augmented reality-based game from its conception. It also follows how Pokemon Go became a global phenomenon this year.

According to Takayuki Hayakawa of Fuji TV, the initial contact between The Pokemon Company and Google came at an unlikely venue. Hayakawa, who is the producer of the documentary, oversaw the investment in Niantic.

The offices of The Pokemon Company and Google Japan are located in the central Tokyo Roppongi Hills complex, and employees from the two companies knew each other from the smoking room of the building, where the notion of a partnership was first suggested, notes Hollywood Reporter.

Hayakawa says the search giant began a “Memories for the Future” project to revitalize local communities after the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan. The project invited people to post video or still images of nostalgic or beautiful scenes on online video/photo sharing platforms.

“From a technological point of view, it was the combination between a specific location and image. Actually, the concept was the prototype of so-called Poke-stop in Pokemon Go,” said Hayakawa.

Pokemon Go adds 10.5K Pokestop and gym locations

In other Pokemon Go news, developer Niantic announced recently that Sprint will be the first U.S. partner it takes on. This means that 10,500 locations of Sprint at RadioShack, Sprint and Boost Mobile will become places of interest for Pokemon Go players They will be able to use charging locations for their phones at these locations as well, notes The Verge.

In July, there were reports that the gaming company had plans to enable advertisers to create sponsored locations; hence, this does not come as a surprise for players. The initiative can be seen as an effort by Sprint to get more people into its retail stores.

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