Pok\u00e9mon Go <\/em>is one of the most iconic games in the industry. The augmented reality mobile title has been played by hundreds of thousands of players and generated more than six billion dollars in profit. But while it\u2019s now a household app to most gamers and long-term fans of the franchise, it\u2019s easy to forget its interesting backstory.<\/p>
Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company first had the idea to create it back in 2014. They saw one of Niantic\u2019s older titles, Ingress, and absolutely loved it.<\/p>
At the time, Niantic was a subsidiary of Google. The companies got together and created an April Fools\u2019 Day collaboration called The Google Maps: Pok\u00e9mon Challenge. During the event, people could use Google Maps to find and catch Pok\u00e9mon around actual maps. It was a huge hit and worked well.<\/p>
A year later in 2015, Niantic branched off from Google to become an independent company. Tatsuo Nomura, who developed the Google Maps: Pok\u00e9mon Challenge<\/em>, joined them as director to start working on what would become Pok\u00e9mon Go.<\/em><\/p>
