'Pokemon GO' News And Updates: Niantic Announces North American Field Testing [VIDEO]

After field tests in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Niantic Labs, the firm behind the highly-anticipated augmented reality game, Pokemon GO, has officially announced that field testing in the United States would begin soon. In order to prepare for the field test and eventual beta launch, the Pokemon GO developer also invited U.S. players to sign up and participate in the game's testing phase.

"Eligible players in the United States are currently being invited to participate in a field test for Pokémon GO. The Pokémon GO field test will give users the opportunity to share early feedback and help improve the Pokémon GO experience," a press release on the U.S. field tests read.

With the official launch of the field testing in the United States, American fans of the hyper-popular franchise would be able to test out the features of the upcoming game, which is expected to be a massive hit among the millions of Pokemon fans around the world.

Pokemon GO field testers have been quite secretive about the contents of the upcoming augmented reality game, save for a leaked video from a player who was allegedly part of the field test. Though the leaked footage was quickly taken off YouTube and the uploader banned from the site, many viewers found the game to be extremely immersive and overall awesome.

One of the things that were immediately noticeable from the leak was the fact that Pokemon evolutions would not be experience-based, like the system used in the franchise's Gameboy titles. Rather, Pokemon evolutions are initiated by collecting shards, which could be gathered by capturing the same Pokemon multiple times.

With regards to the upcoming United States field tests, however, Niantic has stated that test players for Pokemon GO in America would be witness to a number of features in the game that have not been included in previous tests so far, such as in-game climate changes and other notable factors.

Unsurprisingly, Niantic Labs is once more silent about the next region where Pokemon GO would be field tested. As such, Pokemon fans in Europe are still eagerly waiting.