Pokemon Go game has already been launched in 36 countries, including Japan, Australia, U.K., and the USA, but most regions are still waiting for the official release.
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The craze of “Pokemon Go” has helped Mc Donald Corps Japan unit’s stock prices to register a 15 year high, after the company announced a tie-up with the gaming franchise.
The Pokemon Go frenzy has swept over 35 countries around the globe, adding as much as $20 billion to the market value of Nintendo Co.
Pokémon GO is yet to be released in Japan, but the government is already quite anxious about the hit Niantic app’s launch in the country because of numerous reports of accidents the game has caused overseas in recent days.
So if Nintendo places rare Pokemon characters in areas where they see players aren’t going, and nobody attempts to capture the creatures, it can be deduced that the location has restricted access and could be a military zone. This is a proper move considering the companies will be launching Pokemon GO on the homeland of Pokemon itself.
By now, news of Pokemon Go players falling off cliffs, getting robbed, and crashing into police cars has reached the other side of the world, and Japan knows its own citizens are not immune to these kinds of mishaps.
This is the first partnership developer Niantic has made with its augmented reality game and the success, or lack thereof, will give us an indication of what we can expect in the future.
Chief executive of Niantic, John Hanke, was quoted by Reuters, as saying “Why to limit it?”, and predicted that South Korea and Japan could get Pokemon Go in the coming weeks too.
The term “Pokemonomics” has been coined to refer to the economic effects of “Pokemon Go”. As anticipation built toward the Japan release, the government issued nine safety-related rules Wednesday for “Pokemon Go” players to follow. The country’s National Center for Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) told users of the mobile game not to use their real names and warned them about the risks of heat stroke in the muggy Japanese summer.
Despite the global push for Pokemon Go, Niantic’s has excluded them as part of the plans for availability as far as Windows Phone users are concerned. Sources close to TechCrunch said that the game’s launch was postponed, then canceled after an email from McDonald’s Japan about the game’s launch was leaked to Japan’s version of Reddit, 2ch, as well as other internet forums.
A US senator has asked the developers of the game to clarify its data privacy protections. If not Niantic, Nintendo could have jumped in and offer some PR support by now.
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It should be noted that the “Pokemon GO” Japanese launch came with lots of excitement.
