While Pokemon GO has turned into a pretty hardcore obsession for a lot of players all over the world, it was originally intended as something that would be quite casual, yet regular, in terms of time played. For those that were hoping for this casual, fun yet not all-consuming game, the Pokemon GO Plus add-on was something many were looking forward to. In a nutshell, this pokeball-styled Google Maps pin would be strapped to your person, and then allow you to clock up the kilos for those eggs, stock up at pokestops and even catch Pokemon without constantly looking at your smartphone all the time. This add-on was poised to launch later this Summer, but it appears to have been delayed until September.
Nintendo themselves announced the delay on Twitter, saying that it had now been delayed until September of 2016, as oppose to the original late July launch. This is going to disappoint a lot of people, there’s no getting around that, but it’s the sort of thing that Nintendo also unfortunately has a track record with. For years now, Nintendo fans have become used to limited editions of consoles either not being available in their region, or just being extremely hard to get hold of. The same happened with their range of Amiibo toys that launched some time ago now, as they often launch and end up out of stock pretty quickly. Whether or not its Nintendo’s fault, in these situations, third-party sellers on eBay, Amazon and elsewhere end up selling these devices on for a pretty sizeable mark up.
We’ve already seen the same with the Pokemon GO Plus, as sellers on eBay have been promising “guaranteed pre-orders” in the range of two-to-three hundred dollars. This is sadly the sort of thing that most Nintendo fans have grown accustomed to, but it might not be all bad news. After all, Nintendo could simply be responding to incredible demand for the Pokemon GO Plus, and delaying it to make sure that they will be able to keep up with this demand. Nintendo will need to make sure however, that they don’t end up putting off demand for the item with such a delay. Hopefully, it’s the sort of risk that will pay off for Nintendo, rather than blow up in their face.