This weekend sees the Pokémon Go fan community finally descend upon Liverpool, for the game’s first ever UK Safari Zone. Of course, this event was supposed to happen last year, back in March 2020, but the world had other plans.
Now rejigged as a hybrid event, where players can travel to Liverpool’s Sefton Park or play remotely, this revived gathering is another stepping stone back to “normality” for a game which has been forced to make huge changes over the past 18 months – but which has emerged still as popular as ever.
This summer has also marked Pokémon Go’s fifth anniversary – a milestone for any live service game, not least one which has had to face such an existential threat to its typical gameplay and then an enormous player protest as developer Niantic began steering the game back out the other side.
Remembering Pokémon Go’s remarkable first summer (5th anniversary video) Watch on YouTube
I was keen, then, to sit down with Niantic for a catch-up to commemorate Liverpool weekend, recap the summer but also look forward to the game’s next five years. For Pokémon Go fans, I tried to cover as many of your burning questions as possible – EX Raids, Kecleon, and future Community Day candidates. I also wanted to hear more about the longer-term future of Pokémon Go as a pioneer of Niantic’s plans for a real-world AR metaverse – and our chat was well timed, on the day that new PokéStop powering up gameplay rolled out into public testing.
Joining me on video call from Liverpool this morning were director of global product marketing Michael Sterenka and EMEA product marketing manager Philip Marz.
Are you guys here in the UK right now? Are those Liverpudlian trees I see in the background?
Michael Sterenka: Yeah, we’re officially in Sefton Park! We just did a lap around the venue, it’s looking beautiful.
Philip Marz: We just gathered the team and did an introductory tour with them and introduced them to our local partners from Liverpool City Council – since only some of us have spoken with them so far. And yeah, we are doing the final tweaks now before welcoming the attendees tomorrow.