Why Pokémon Go is a hit, how it helps Nintendo, and when its moment could fizz out

Pokémon Go had a week unlike any video game I’ve covered before in my career. Here’s a collection of the posts we penned last week, ranging from players finding dead bodies to Craigslist entrepreneurs selling preplayed accounts.

My friend and former boss Chris Grant wrote about the staggering demand for coverage at our sister-site Polygon. In “Some thoughts on Nintendo’s big week,” Grant contextualized the game within Nintendo’s unusual year. And he noted how Pokémon Go inspired the most popular posts not simply on the video game outlet, but across Vox Media, from The Verge to Racked to Vox.

But why? And how? And when will this moment pass, or has it already? I invited our games editor and Pokémon expert Andrew Webster on the show to provide background on the phenomenon, and speculate what its future might look like.

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