Pokémon Go for iOS and Android brings Pokémon into the real world

The Pokémon Company has announced a new mobile game called Pokémon Go, produced in collaboration with Nintendo and Niantic, the former Google subsidiary behind the Ingress augmented reality game. Pokémon Go looks to follow in the footsteps of Ingress, letting players find virtual Pokémon and do battle in the real world, powered by GPS. Niantic broke away from Google after the Alphabet reorganization.

Nintendo is developing a companion smartwatch device called Pokémon Go Plus, designed to help you take part in the game's world without having to stare at your phone all day. The Pokéball-shaped device will vibrate and light up when you get near to a Pokémon in the real world. Tsunekazu Ishihara, the CEO of The Pokémon Company, said in a press conference today that he'd been working on Pokémon Go with late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata for around two years.

Pokémon Go will be available in 2016 for iOS and Android — 20 years after the original Pokémon games. The game will be free to play, with various in-app purchases available. A price for the Pokémon Go Plus watch hasn't been set.

The actual game itself wasn't shown off too much during today's press conference in Tokyo, but you can watch the over-the-top announcement trailer below to get an idea of what The Pokémon Company, Niantic, and Nintendo are going for.

Game Freak's Junichi Masuda, The Pokémon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara, Niantic's John Hanke, and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto.

Correction: a previous version of this story stated that "Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are making a joint investment in the now independent company," but we are now told that information was communicated to us in error.

Verge Video: Explaining Google's Alphabet shakeup