Strange things were afoot in July as teenagers congregated in churchyards. Cars crashed as drivers stared at their smartphones. And Clash Royale — among the highest grossing games apps since its launch last March — suddenly dropped out of the top 10. One cause of all these events was the launch of Pokémon Go — the mixed-reality mobile game that superimposed animated characters on to the real world for gamers to chase around cities and along roads, and had 50m players at its peak. It also caused an almighty pain for Ilkka Paananen, the 37-year-old co-founder and chief executive of Supercell, the Finnish gaming studio behind Clash Royale and Clash of Clans. Pokémon Go’s success “was a kick in our butt”, he says.
去年7月發生了一些奇怪的事情：青少年們在教堂墓地聚集；司機們盯著自己的智能手機，導致撞車事故。《部落沖突:皇室戰爭》(Clash Royale)自去年3月發行以來躋身于最盈利游戲APP之列，那時卻突然掉出了前十名。所有這些事件的一個原因是《口袋妖怪GO》(Pokémon GO，又譯“精靈寶可夢GO”)的發行——這是一款“混合現實”手機游戲，將動畫角色疊加至現實世界，讓玩家在市內各地和沿著道路到處搜索，最高峰時有5000萬玩家。它也給37歲的Supercell聯合創始人和首席執行官伊卡?帕納寧(Ilkka Paananen)帶來巨大痛苦，這家芬蘭游戲工作室發行了《部落沖突:皇室戰爭》和《部落戰爭》(Clash of Clans)。帕納寧說，《口袋妖怪GO》的成功“是對我們的重大打擊”。