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‘Pokemon GO’: San Diego Comic-Con 2016 Panel Gets An Upgrade, Thanks To Game’s Soaring Popularity

By Nicole Giacobone
Published on: 10:32 PST, Jul 17, 2016

Pokemon GO is everywhere, with people worldwide getting caught up in the “gotta catch ’em all” sensation. Thanks to the mobile game’s soaring popularity, Pokemon GO will have a larger presence at the San Diego Comic-Con 2016 next week.

The concept of Pokemon GO received a large amount of excitement from devoted Pokemon fans back when the game was in development. The mobile game is barely two weeks old and in that short amount of time, Nintendo’s shares have climbed up and the game has amassed millions of players and continues to be successful.

It’s no wonder that SDCC’s organizers have decided to upgrade the Pokemon GO game’s presence at this year’s Comic-Con, according to the SDCC blog written by the Comic-Con team. Originally, the game’s company, Niantic, had a scheduled Thursday, July 21, panel titled “Re-Imagining Reality: Bringing Games Into the Real World with Ingress and Pokemon GO.”

“Well, the good news is, CCI realized there was no way that room was going to hold all of the folks at Comic-Con who cared about Pokemon Go — so the game’s panel is getting a major upgrade (and a date shift), all the way to Hall H on Sunday at 1:45 p.m.”

Now that Pokemon GO is a big hit among gamers, the panel is now scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Hall H. The popular convention room can hold 6,500 people, so more Nintendo attendees can now catch the event, compared to the original panel space that had a maximum capacity of 480 people.

While the panel’s event has been moved to a much larger area, it might still be a close call if several fans of Pokemon GO decide to check out the Comic-Con panel on Sunday afternoon. Niantic has yet to announce if they plan on livestreaming or recording its panel discussion for people that can not attend the San Diego Comic-Con.

Niantic founder John Hanke is the panel’s host, and will lead the augmented reality gaming discussion. Now that the panel has a major upgrade in its SDCC presence, Hanke can take the opportunity to address the popular mobile game’s topics, such as future updates to Pokemon GO that includes the highly-anticipated Pokemon trading feature.

Pokemon GO has become a worldwide phenomenon, but many players think that the game can be better with a Pokemon trading feature. Hanke spoke with Business Insider and said that Niantic does have every intention of adding the trading feature to the mobile game in the future, but didn’t go into specific details over how the trading feature will work between players, and if the game will prevent users from exploiting the feature and ruining the experience for other players.

No one in the gaming industry could have guessed that Pokemon GO would have become the biggest mobile game in U.S. history, even surpassing popular mobile apps such as Tinder and Candy Crush. Since its launch, Pokemon GO has gained about 21 million daily active users, surpassing the 20 million Candy Crush users, causing the latter to be dethroned as the biggest mobile game, according to a SurveyMonkey Intelligence poll.

Pokemon GO users that plan on going to SDCC 2016 can still play their game throughout the convention center. SDCC organizers posted information on July 14 on where players can catch the Pokemon creatures at various locations. Players can also go to areas outside the Convention Center such as the San Diego airport, neighboring restaurants, and outdoor landmarks.

San Diego Comic-Con starts with a Preview Night on Wednesday, July 21, and ends on Sunday, July 24, at the San Diego Convention Center. Niantic’s Pokemon GO panel will be held in Hall H at 1:45 p.m. on July 24.

[Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

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