Much will depend on whether Pokemon Go’s success endures and whether rival game makers can duplicate the underlying technology, Bloomberg noted.
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Pokemon Go: what is it and why are so many people obsessed with it? That game also asked people to take their smartphones to real-world locations as part of a fictional global cyberwar.
Local Pokemon fans are trying different ways to get Pokemon Go to work here ahead of the app’s official launch in Singapore, even as privacy and safety concerns are being raised in countries where the game is already out.
Now, a week after first launching in the US, Australia and New Zealand, it’s become available in the United Kingdom on Google’s Play Store – where the number of downloads are displayed – and the Apple app store.
“Pokemon GO has further indicated that it shares de-identified and aggregate data with other third parties for a multitude of purposes”. Your phone’s location is used to work out if you’re close to a generated pokemon. During setup on iOS devices, the game initially requested full access to the user’s Google account, a surprisingly intrusive demand that would allow Niantic to see and modify almost all Google account information. In response, the makers of Pokemon Go have said people should “play with friends when going to new or unfamiliar places” and “remember to be safe and alert at all times”. Clearly, it’s helped Nintendo (to the tune of billions of dollars added to its market cap nearly instantly). The player must throw a virtual ball to capture the creature in an effort to achieve a higher score within the game.
If you’re not happy with this level of intrusion, you can’t just uninstall the app: you must also log into your Google account and revoke access to Pokemon Go. Funnily enough, these spawn points are more concealed in “Pokemon Go”, but they stand out quite obviously in “Ingress”.
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However, if you’re planning on playing Pokemon Go for the foreseeable future it might be worth creating a Pokemon Trainer Club membership. Why?
