Written by: Kanak Gupta
Impaakt is a crowd-sourced, collaborative platform that relies on collective intelligence to produce high-quality impact analyses and scores available to all of us, for free.
Augmented Reality (AR) is described as a technology that lets computer-based content add to the real world. However, AR games are dangerous as they increase the potential for more traumatic injuries to the body. ARs engage children in unsafe pedestrian behaviors given the distraction caused by cell phone AR games.
They also put mental safety at risk, causing gaming addictions over time, leading to stress, depression, and anxiety. Violent AR games may cause diminished sensitivity to violence and aggressive behaviors.
Nintendo’s best-selling game, Pokémon Go’s lifetime revenue stands at $3bn (as of October 2019) with 1bn downloads (as of March 2020). The US contributed the highest ($335mn or 38%) in the game’s revenue, followed by Japan ($286mn or 32%) in 2019. In Pokémon Go, the app superimposes virtual Pokémon and game locations in the real world requiring the players to walk/drive around the locations (such as amusement park, neighborhood, etc.), find, capture, and collect Pokémon. However, Pokémon Go has had negative impacts on people’s lives. It is associated with causing accidents and injuries. The players have sustained bruises, fractures, sprains, and motor vehicle accidents. The game has been the major reason behind death among 5–44 year olds.
For instance, the deaths, injuries, and car accidents related to the game have incurred county-wide costs of $5.2mn. In the US, Pokémon Go is linked with causing 256 deaths and 150,000 traffic accidents, with economic costs ranging between $2 bn to $7.3bn in 148 days of the game’s introduction (between 6 July 2016 and 30 November 2016). As per the Pokémon Go Death Tracker, there have been 22 deaths and 61 injuries between 2016 and 2020. However, Nintendo has not taken any action in response.
Nintendo’s game has put at risk people’s health and wellbeing. Further, the company shall implement measures to avoid the negative consequences of its AR game.
