Pokémon is planning on having a big year in 2016. Not only is it the 20th anniversary of the franchise, but it is expected to have a few big games. One of them is Pokémon Z, the long-awaited follow-up to Pokémon X and Y, but this follow-up game is probably just not happening, but Pokémon Sun and Moon is. However, the game that is for sure happening is Pokémon GO, a location-based mobile game for iOS and Android, which is supposed to a release date this year.
Yibada has stated that Pokémon Z development has been cancelled due to Pokémon Sun and Moon, and this source goes so far as to say that Pokémon Z was supposed to be announced during Nintendo's Direct event. Of course, the new titles of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon were announced, but the issue with Pokémon Z is that it may have never have been developed in the first place. It wasn't like Pokémon announced that they ever working on the game, but this might have been something that Pokémon fans just wanted.
Fortunately, Pokémon GO is real, and it has been announced officially, but the actual specific release date has not been unveiled. There is a report that a beta test is already going on in Japan, conducted by Niantic Labs.
If you aren't familiar with Niantic Labs, they have created the location-based game known as Ingress, which was a big hit. The purpose of the Pokémon GO game is that players can go to real life locations in order to seek out 500 Pokémon using augmented reality. About 151 Pokémon are from the original generation, and the rest of them can be divided into three categories of normal, legendary, and mythic.
There is news from News Every Day saying that there could be microtransactions within the game, but the question is whether or not there will be a currency to get the target Pokémon. I'm guessing that would be a smart move, as those players that can't find certain Pokémon can just purchase them using actual money.
So, when is Pokémon GO coming out? The fact that Pokémon is been quiet about it is as bad as Nintendo not revealing any new information about The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U. If it does come out this year, it would make sense for it to come out in the summertime. After all, this game is a location-based game, so the players would be outside, and isn't the best time to be outside in the summer? Seriously, it just makes sense.
As for Pokémon Sun and Moon release date, there might be some information about it the April issue of CoroCoro magazine, according to Mobipicker.
