Organiser Josh McPhee said the turnout, despite the chilly conditions, was excellent.

He and the events team said the opportunity for Go players to meet, share their gaming experience, and catch Pokemon through the game’s augmented reality features, heralded a new direction for immersive games.

Josh and the team were undergoing final preparations when he spoke with the Times about the game’s explosive popularity over recent weeks.

For him, the concept of an immersive social game did not start with Pokemon Go, but with the early versions of Gameboy -- the hardware that made Pokemon globally favoured in the 1990s. Now, the limitations that were once science fiction for old-school gamers are becoming real.

“Pokemon, itself, was a huge game in the ‘90s on Gameboy,” Josh said.

“Everyone loves the idea of being a Pokemon trainer and walking around and catching Pokemon. The problem was, on Gameboy you didn’t walk around anywhere because your little man moved around the world.

“Now, you basically get to be a real-time Pokemon trainer. So, you get to explore the forests and the lakes. And, it is geographically based so if you are near water, you are more likely to spawn water Pokemon; if you are in a park, you’re more likely to spawn park of forestry-type animals; if you are in suburbia, you will find different Pokemon.

The Facebook invitation to a two-hour walk and gathering at Victoria Park was a hot ticket in the weeks leading up to the event. It followed a similar invite on Friday, July 8, which showed more than 5000 Sydney players listed as “confirmed” to attend a city event, with more than 11,000 registering interest.

“It is encouraging people to explore and get out and about and meet up with people by going to these Poke-stops,” Josh said, commenting on the almost inherently socially-driven gameplay.

“You could originally trade between Gameboys, but it was a very physical thing. You had to plug the cord in, and you had to wait, and it was tedious. 

“I think, eventually, (the developers) will have trading and battling for everyone, but it is still, very much, a new beginning,” he said.

“It was always a social game, but in an exclusive or an individual setting. 

“It was your game. Someone else might be playing the same game a little further from you, but you still talked about it, you could compare Pokemon, and it was a social thing.”

Now, the augmented reality platform has exploded the social aspect of the game in ways that have revolutionised the idea of gaming and game culture.