Pokemon GO Beta Period Ends This Week

Pokemon GO will officially end its testing on June 30, according to an email dispatched to testers, to get ready for the game's assumed release in July.

Pokemon GO developer Niantic has announced the end of their field testing for the upcoming augmented-reality mobile game. Tests have begun couple of months ago in Japan, but were present in the states for only a short time. Right now, trainers have little time left to tinker with the beta before the project gets shut down and all progress deleted.

There have been indications that the global testing was coming to an end, but no official info has been revealed until now. While the game won't be playable anymore, the collected data and the feedback from testers will be crucial for the development of the final product, which it's believed by many to be available some time in late July.

This became the assumed release date following the events of the Pokemon GO presentation at E3 2016. Throughout the presentation, a wearable companion device named GO+ that allows access to the game without using a smartphone, was announced to be released by the end of July. This caused the presenters to suggest the game proper must also be released at that time, which most will surely agree with.

Although this doesn't guarantee a July release date, it might make sense if the game is released before or around the same time as the companion piece, it would presumably be useless otherwise. Now with the latest announcement that beta testing finishes at the end of June, it all seems accidental. What this gesture means remains a mystery, but if screenshots are required from testers then it may be something that needs to be stored for a later date.

Pokemon GO is expected to arrive some time in July, 2016 for iOS and Android.