Pokémon Go made me late for work

It’s 9:15 a.m., and as I was sitting down to write this post, my iPhone buzzed. I looked, and a Pidgey sat on my keyboard. I just had to catch it — making me even later for work than I already was.

After dropping my kid off at summer camp, I usually dive into my workday around 8:45 a.m.-8:50 a.m. But today, I found myself already behind as I fiddled with Pokémon Go, the augmented reality mobile game that launched yesterday in the United States. It uses Niantic’s location-based gameplay to plant the pocket monsters, battle gyms, and other goodies around you in the real world. This free-to-play app is a landmark in a series that has shipped 275 million video games worldwide and is estimated to bring in $2.1 billion this year as one of the world’s largest brands — making it a major force in the $36.9 billion mobile gaming market.