Pokemon Go gets big Comic-Con stage, creator talks success and future

The creator of thewildly popular Pokemon Go gaming app received the celebritytreatment on Sunday at the final day of San Diego's annualComic-Con, as he discussed the viral popularity and future ofthe game.

John Hanke, founder of Niantic Labs and developer of PokemonGo, was welcomed with loud applause from more than 6,500 fans ona stage usually reserved for star-studded presentations frommovie studios and TV networks.

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Hankesaid the global popularity of the game, whichincorporates colourful animated creatures fromNintendo'sPokemonuniverse into the real world using augmented reality (AR) andGooglemapping technology, had been "mind-blowing."

The game, released July 6, was evolved from an earlierNiantic Labs AR app game called Ingress, which Hanke said hasalso gained in popularity after the release of Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go has captivated fans around the world, with 21million active U.S. users in under two weeks of its launch.Stock prices for Nintendo soared after the game's launch.

Hanke said updates and new features would be rolled out inthe coming months and years as the game grows to include morecreatures and elements of the vast Pokemon universe.

Team leaders' names revealed

During a question-and-answer session with the audience,Hanke said the team was aware and fixing the glitches and bugsin the game and took fans' suggestions on what to add, such aspossible functions to breed Pokemon.

He said they were working on enhancing the functions of"pokestops" and "gyms," located at various landmarks within auser's neighbourhood, and unveiled the identities of the threevirtual leaders of the teams Blanche for Team Mystic, Sparkfor Team Instinct and Candela for Team Valor.

The developer said AR "can enhance the things we already doto get out of the house," and wanted Pokemon Go to encouragepeople to go outdoors, be active and meet new people.

Many players at the panel had hopes that a rare Pokemon mayhave been released just for them, but Hanke disappointed them,saying no new rare creatures were at the convention.

The small team at Niantic Labs, founded internally at Googleand spun into an independent entity last year, has struggled tokeep the game's servers running as more users join, Hanke said,and their current priority was to prevent servers from crashing.