Going for your normal morning walks, when suddenly you spot a group of people frantically running around the park trying to catch pokemons. Yes, I am talking about Pokemon Go; the overnight sensation which catapulted John Hanke, the brain behind Pokemon Go, to legendary status! Having generated over US$200 million worldwide revenue, Pokemon Go has managed to beat high grossing titles such as Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga by wide margins. Having said that, how many of you know the story behind the evolution of this global phenomenon? Well, let's find out!
Well the dream started back in 1996 when John Hanke created the first MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game which was called, Meridian 59. It was the first ever 3D online role-playing game and also paved the way for other games of its time such as World Of Warcraft, one of my personal favorites! Apart from creating 3D games, John Hanke also had an interest in "mapping the world". This is what ultimately sparked the idea of creating Pokemon Go.
In 2001, John Hanke started his own company, Keyhole, which served as the front runner in the creation of Google's most well designed and helpful app, Google Earth. Google then bought Keyhole in 2004 for $35 dollars and then launched Google Earth in 2005. From 2004-2010, John Hanke was the head of the Google Geo Team and helped them in further development of Google Earth and Google Street View. During his time in the team, he kept gathering members for a special project.
In 2010, John Hanke founded a new company called Niantic, which was responsible for creating Pokemon Go. But before Pokemon Go, they created another GPS based game called Ingress. The core game-play functionality of Ingress allowed players to roam around and claim "portals". It also gave the option to players to submit their own suggestions for Portal locations. Although Ingress wasn't a huge success for John Hanke, it didn't stop him from making his dreams a reality. On 1st April 2014, Google and the Pokemon Company decided to issue a challenge to Google Earth users to catch all the pokemons on the Google Earth Maps. Google also offered Pokemon Master Business Cards to players who were able to catch all 151 pokemons.
Taking the overwhelming response from the public as inspiration, John Hanke and his team were fully involved in developing Pokemon Go. The Pokestops and Gym locations in Pokemon Go are actually the portal locations which were used in Ingress and also locations suggested by the Ingress users. Following a joint venture between Google, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company, Pokemon Go was finally launched in July 2016 and was an overnight success.
Well the one thing we all can take away from John Hanke's story is that, dreams do come true! Well, with that being said, its time to finally catch that Pidgeotto on my couch!
