The game has enthralled players and boosted investors’ view of Nintendo’s future, as they bet the group can cash in on a treasure chest of other lucrative cartoon characters, from Donkey Kong to Super Mario.
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The image you see above from Toru Hanai at Reuters is our first look at a sponsored Poke Stop, which unsurprisingly looks a great deal like a normal Poke Stop. The expectation for “Pokemon Go” is that “Pokemon Go” in that sense can become an advertising platform. However, the fast food chain is an ideal location since there is a McDonald’s in or near just about every town. But fans in select countries can argue about the fact that Pokemon GO is still not available to them.
Google unwittingly planted the seed for “Pokemon Go” two years ago in one of the many April Fools’ Day jokes the internet company is famous for.
The servers have slowly been coming back online for many players, although Niantic is yet to provide an official update.
One would assume that being the birth place of the Pokemon brand, Japan would be one of the first countries to receive support for the game.
Pokemon Go continues to dominate the App Store and Play Store charts in Canada, sitting at the top of the free section in both digital marketplaces.
Markets had cheered the app’s global success as a great sign for Nintendo’s nascent move into the mobile games market.
But analysts had warned that the rally was overdone since the actual impact of the game on Nintendo’s finances would be moderate at best – a point it confirmed on Friday.
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Keito Sato, 17, walking with school friends in Tokyo’s Roppongi area, said he’s been playing since he learned about the game’s release via Twitter. He downloaded the game as soon as a school exam ended Friday morning. Players use mobile devices to search for and capture the Pokemon characters, which can then do battle with other virtual creatures. Niantic Chief Executive John Hanke has said it would be technically possible to launch there, but noted a host of complex rules and restrictions.
