When this year’s San Diego Comic-Con announced their Pokémon GO panel with Niantic founder John Hanke, the game was only a day old. Accordingly, the panel was to take place in a room fitting less than 500 people. But in less than two weeks the app has been downloaded 65 million times in the US alone, and is now a legitimate digital phenomenon. Today, the unofficial SDCC Blog has announced that such a room simply won’t capture all the trainers eager to hear about the game and its upcoming developments. Pokémon GO will now be heading to Hall H.
The panel has gotten a time shift as well. John Hanke and colleagues will be speaking on Sunday, July 24th in Hall H at 1:45PM. Hall H — the infamously long-line ridden home of SDCC’s largest and most anticipated panels — has a capacity for five to six thousand Poké Players. We suspect that still won’t be enough room. Who doesn’t want to be the very best?
Comic-Con’s panel description says that “John Hanke, founder of Niantic and pioneer of real world gaming, will examine the past, present and future of extending games beyond the screen and re-imagining reality through the lens of Ingress and Pokémon GO.” But we’re going to guess that he will be drowned out by players asking where the hell Mewtwo is going to spawn.
If you are heading down to SDCC and plan on checking out the Poké Panel, let us know in the comments below. Pack a battery charger, sunscreen, some water, and try not to bump into literally 100,000 people next weekend.
Images: The Pokemon Company, Nintendo
