You're talking more about the graphics than the actual AR experience. It was tied to the real world as mentioned in the sibling comment. I imagine they accumula

You're talking more about the graphics than the actual AR experience. It was tied to the real world as mentioned in the sibling comment. I imagine they accumulated a lot of data from Ingress. More often than not, the gyms and pokemon hotspots were located at some point of interest and/or place that had heavy foot traffic, increasing the probability that you'd run into other players. It was a global sensation for a reason and despite it's extensive flaws, it was one of the funnest gaming experiences I've ever had. Not because of what happened in the game, which admittedly was beyond terrible at every level from core gameplay to polish and UI (I've seen and worked on better better at 24 hr gamejams. I have no idea why Nintendo didn't step in and take over development after the craze happened) The gyms closest to me were located in a popular shopping mall that had no shortage of players. It led to a few new meatspace friends for me. There was something meta-magical about seeing someone walking down the street glued to their phone while you're doing the same, both of you realizing that you're trying to catch some rare pokemon. Often enough, it led to some friendly social encounter, providing just a glimpse of what AR gaming could be. It also inspired the dev community to make all sorts of apps and mods that addressed many of the games shortcomings.I left after Niantic dismissed the dev community because the game could've been so much more with the power of the crowd. Instead, Niantic preferred to keep the game shitty so that they could extract profits from the parents of 8 year olds. I was doubly disappointed when it was revealed that the Switch, a mobile game console, would have no GPS chip. Nintendo could have pioneered AR gameplay like they did with 3D gaming. Maybe that's expecting too much from a company that doesn't even get online gameplay. It only lasted two weeks, but that's the standard shelf life of most games that aren't endless grindfests.