Pokemon Go is starting to appear where it all began: Japan. The update is the third one that’s come out for the game, which has now been released in 33 different countries and has over 14 million players. Niantic had planned to release Pokemon Go earlier this week, but the company pushed it back again after the news leaked out, building additional hype for the game and raising concerns that the game’s current servers wouldn’t be able to handle the traffic.
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Just days after the launch, police in the United States were issuing warnings after a dozen victims in Missouri were lured into armed robberies, and dozens more suffered minor injuries from tripping over while looking for Pokemon.
Apple Inc stands to rake in $3 billion (roughly Rs. 20,173 crores) in revenue from the Pokemon Go craze in the next one to two years as gamers buy “PokeCoins” from its app store, brokerage Needham & Co said. There is no doubt that we could see a frenzy of mobile games adapting Pokemon Go’s features. So, Japan’s masses of eager Pokemon fans are going to have to wait an undetermined length of time before they can finally get their hands on the game.
On Wednesday, McDonald’s Japan released a short statement saying that it was collaborating with Pokémon Go and that the game would be launched soon in the country.
But game industry watchers who are familiar with Japan’s network are not that optimistic toward the released day.
Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game made by Niantic Labs using the Pokemon intellectual property owned by Japanese game and console maker Nintendo.
Since its US launch, people have become so enthralled with the capture of the cyber creatures that there have been numerous reports of injuries and mishaps occurring when players are so glued to their phone screens, they lose track of where they are in the real world. A driver who crashed into another auto in Fall City, Washington, in the USA, reportedly told authorities he was distracted by the game.
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“[That] shopping season is less than a month away, so it’s likely that Pokemon Go will not have waned that much in popularity by then”, Dombkowski said. Japan is the next country where Pokemon GO will launch, and it is expected to be a massive hit there, as well.
