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月发生了一些奇怪的事情：青少年们在教堂墓地聚集；司机们盯着自己的智能手机，导致撞车事故。《部落冲突:皇室战争》(Clash Royale)自去年3月发行以来跻身于最盈利游戏APP之列，那时却突然掉出了前十名。所有这些事件的一个原因是《口袋妖怪GO》(Pokémon GO，又译“精灵宝可梦GO”)的发行——这是一款“混合现实”手机游戏，将动画角色叠加至现实世界，让玩家在市内各地和沿着道路到处搜索，最高峰时有5000万玩家。它也给37岁的Supercell联合创始人和首席执行官伊卡•帕纳宁(Ilkka Paananen)带来巨大痛苦，这家芬兰游戏工作室发行了《部落冲突:皇室战争》和《部落战争》(Clash of Clans)。帕纳宁说，《口袋妖怪GO》的成功“是对我们的重大打击”。