- Niantic Labs to support the PCA 'Fridays in the City' campaign
- Pokémon GO and Harry Potter players will battle to find items in Brisbane's CBD
- The idea hopes to attract players to spend time and money in the city
The Property Council of Queensland recently launched the Fridays in the City campaign.
Running for three weeks between 21 May and 25 June, the initiative is designed to bring people back into the CBD with incentives such as reduced car parking fees, free coffee and fitness classes.
Adding to the list of enticements, the Property Council recently announced Niantic Labs will be supporting the campaign.
Niantic is the company behind augmented reality (AR) crazes Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
Players of these games “will be drawn into the city to battle other players and collect unique items at five designated Fridays in the City locations,” said PCA.
“We know games such as Pokémon GO can entice large crowds of people to specific locations, so why not draw them into the CBD where they can support businesses that have struggled since the pandemic?”
Jen Williams, incoming Queensland Executive Director
Pokémon Go was first launched in 2016, quickly becoming one of the most downloaded games of all time. The app was downloaded an amazing 500 million times.
The phenomenon gained so much traction during its first year, the number of daily users was higher than Twitter.
Users were seen trampling over garden beds, crossing dangerous roads and generally walking all over the place in order to find their hidden Pokémon characters. At least they were outside.
Presumably, things in Brisbane will be carefully controlled. It’s just another series of ideas to try to lure people back into the city centres, after Brisbane announced their various initiatives including a golden ticket, as well as Melbourne’s Fab Friday and Adelaide introduced free e-scooters.
Ms Williams said “We have organised five unique game locations to be set up in the Brisbane CBD where players will be able to find rare items, battle each other, and then hopefully pause to get a bite to eat or stop off for a drink with friends.”
