How Farfetch'd made a far-fetched dream a reality according to Michael Steranka, VP of product on Pokémon Go
Some people find a job in the games industry by making that job appear. Other people see a job and then line themselves up for it so that they can have that job. Games, largely, are a passion-driven industry, and we can see a lot of passion around the games that we enjoy. Michael Steranka, VP of product on Pokémon Go, recently spoke about how he was the world's luckiest Pokémon Go fan, as he joined the team after launch, gearing himself up to take on the role after he fell in love with the game. This love, however, was a pretty funny one from the outside.
Before Michael Steranka worked at Pokémon Go, but after he got married to his partner, they both planned their honeymoon in Hong Kong.
"I have to say, I might have had an ulterior motive with that choice. A lot of you might know that Farfetch'd is a region-exclusive. It's one of the few that I was missing from that original launch set. There's only one problem with this plan. If anybody's been in Hong Kong in August, it is brutal. I was sweating through my pants, which had never happened before that trip, and it's never happened after that trip."
There was a slight second problem, which was right before this trip, Pokémon Go had added in the Sightings Feature, which has long since been re-worked, as it really didn't tell you where Pokémon were, beyond "nearby", which never seemed to be the case.
"This made it impossible to find the Pokémon that you're looking for."
During one of their days, Michael decided to convince his partner to check for Farfetch'd for a little while, which turned into 8 hours of searching all around Hong Kong. This was an entire adventure for the newlyweds.
"It was on this trip that I really felt that Pokémon Go was such a special game. It totally changed the vacation that we had planned in an incredibly meaningful way and helped us explore Hong Kong in a way that we didn't even plan for. At this moment, I told myself, I'm going to do whatever I can to join the team that's making this game."
And less than a year later, he was hired by Niantic to put on the very first Pokémon Go Fest.
Now, Pokémon Go Fest, the very first one, was such a great concept - however, the infrastructure for a game of this level wasn't one that was set up yet. Despite the ambitious nature of Michael Steranka and his passion for the game, the event itself didn't go well, and people reached out from all walks of his life, asking if he was okay...
The team at Pokémon Go didn't fire him, they didn't reprimand him, and instead planned an offsite where they could all talk about what worked and what needed to be changed, which is such a fantastic way for a company to work.
"Everybody comes together and celebrates their fandom in a way that no other game does. Just last month, we brought it all back to Grant Park and had our biggest US Go Fest of all time. It was a very nostalgic moment for me and a lot of the people who were at the 2017 event."
Now, in this year, one of the main things that Michael reflects on is the fact that Pokémon Go is for everyone. "It's just incredible to me that my three-year-old son and my nearly seventy-year-old mom can enjoy this wonderful game together. And they play in very different ways, by the way. My mom avoids Team Rocket like the plague. She is so terrified of those mysterious shadowy figures. My son, every time the Rocket emblem appears on my screen, he insists that he battles them."
In the last ten years, the world itself has changed. Not just the games that we have access to or the updates within those games. We, ourselves, have changed as we have played.
"One thing that's been consistent is Pokemon Go's been able to meet me where I was and how I wanted to play the game at that moment in time. I think that's something really wonderful and not something a lot of other games can claim."
Pokemon Go aims to be a forever game, not just something that's around for a short amount of time. In the coming 10 years, the team at Pokémon Go are looking to see if their gym system can bring communities together in new ways, through a focus on Core Memories and the way that players remember Pokémon they've caught and moments with the community, within the game.
Another big focus is multigenerational play - Pokémon Go is going to be working on how different members of a family can all work together and play together, in ways that fit their lifestyles, so that Pokémon can really grow with families that are growing.
As a Pokémon Go day one player, I am excited to see where Pokémon continues to grow and am happy to hear that core memories and communities are some of the pillars of focus.
