In my area, quite a few people are playing now that Gen II is out, but I don't see the effects lasting very long. Niantic has done a poor job in the sense that this game is only interesting for maybe the first month when new Pokemon are released, and then quickly forgotten afterwards. There's little incentive to play the game once you've collected all available Pokemon, which can easily be done within even the first few weeks if you're diligent enough of a player.