We don’t talk about cancellations at shows too often, mainly because it really doesn’t happen too often. When it does happen, it’s usually not for a game we are watching. However, this particular cancellation is about a game we’ve been following for awhile now. One game we were pretty eager to see in action, and hopefully get some hands-on time with, was Niantic’s upcoming Pokemon GO title.
Originally Niantic had planned to do a gameplay presentation and talk for their upcoming augmented reality title. What it was all to entail isn’t totally known, but it was something we were looking forward to, as many other sites were as well, not to mention mobile gamers who are Pokemon fans. The whole thing has been on the GDC schedule since just after registration went live. Now the presentation has been stricken from the schedule.
Why is it no more? According to Game Informer, Niantic decided to cancel the presentation in favor of focusing efforts on more development for Pokemon GO, getting it ready for closed beta testing and the eventual game launch. So with that said, we now know there’s going to be a closed beta testing phase in the very near future that we are keeping our eye out for its sign-ups.
We have decided to forego our GDC talk on Pokémon GO in order to focus on getting the product ready for beta test and launch. As much as we hate to disappoint those in the industry attending GDC, we feel our time and energy right now are best spent on making sure every aspect of the product is where we want it to be. – Niantic CEO John Hanke
So there you have it. If you were hoping we would be reporting on Pokemon GO from GDC, and showing some of the gameplay, it looks like we won’t be doing that after all. Hopefully we can get into Niantic’s upcoming closed beta testing phase.
Website Referenced: Game Informer
