Thousands of people flocked to Sydney Harbour on Sunday, not to ogle at the iconic Opera House or the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but to desperately search for virtual Pokémon.
Fans of new mobile game Pokémon GO embarked on Sydney’s first ‘Pokémon Go Walk’ after it got more than 5,000 RSVPs on Facebook.
Guy Blomberg, content manager for PAX Australia and Oz Comic-Con and creator of the Pokémon GO Sydney Walk, told Mashable he had no idea so many people were going to show up: “I did not think it would be that big, so I was very surprised,” he said.
“It’s definitely a thing. It’s getting people out of the house.”
Items for the game, and Pokémon, can be commonly found at ‘Pokéstops’, often well-known local landmarks – making Sydney Harbour the perfect place to look.
A Pikachu and an Electabuzz both made appearances during the walk, prompting players to ‘go crazy’ gathering around the virtual monster.
With Pokémon scattered everywhere needing to be caught, Mr Blomberg admitted that the ‘walk’ wasn’t exactly a brisk one.
“It’s more like ‘Pokémon Stop’” he said.
The UK and release of Pokémon GO has been delayed, the game's makers have said, due to the overwhelming amount of interest the game has attracted.
Although the game has only been released in the US, Australia and New Zealand so far, the servers are continually experiencing problems due to the unprecendented number of people playing.
Niantic Labs, who make the game, have said the UK release will be on "pause" until they can ensure that the game will work properly for everyone.
Gamers that can't wait any longer to start catching Pokémon in the real world can download the app by changing the region on their iPhone, or downloading the game as an APK file (for Android).
