Pokémon GO to begin beta testing in Japan

Pokémon GO, an augmented reality mobile Pokémon title, will launch its first beta test in Japan later this month, developer Niantic announced.

Prospective beta participants must have an active Google account to register for the upcoming test period. As Niantic said in the beta’s registration notes (translated to English from the Japanese site), only mobile users running Android 4.3 or an iPhone 5 (or higher) will be considered. In addition, “for technical reasons,” the number of iOS participants will be limited.

Precious little is known of Pokémon GO. The game was announced in September 2015, on the heels of an April Fool’s joke from Google which tasked Google Maps users with finding Pokémon around the globe. Pokémon GO seeks to bring that exact joke to life through augmented reality, allowing mobile users to battle Pokémon in the real world.

The game was set to appear at this year’s Game Developers Conference, but its dedicated panel, Catch ‘Em All: Pokémon GO and Real World Gaming, was recently cancelled.

“Pokémon GO ups the challenge of real-world gaming design,” GDC said of the game, “taking a beloved franchise and setting its hundreds of brightly colored monsters loose across the globe, adding a new Bluetooth wearable device created by Nintendo to the mix.”

Thanks, Polygon.