Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, a body under the Cabinet Office, has issued a nine-point warning full of illustrations on its website as well as social media Twitter and Line, warning against potential troubles over the online game. It also includes practical advice, like a warning to take battery packs along because of the amount of power the game sucks up.
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While the game is not yet open to consumer brands looking to advertise in alternate reality, GameStop, RadioShack and Sprint Corp. are finding ways to capitalize on the frenzy around the game to get players into their stores. “Pokemon Go”, a compulsive smartphone game has not been made avail. Players can already play the game using workarounds but can’t get it legitimately through the Japanese app stores.
McDonald’s Japan declined to comment on the report. That turned out to be false, with some reports suggesting it had been delayed because the leak had shown Niantic just how much demand there was for the game.
And with the recent delay, even investors started to show frustration.
For now, McDonald’s will not offer any Pokemon figurines with Happy Meals at its USA locations, said Lisa McComb, a spokeswoman for the Oak Brook, Illinois-based chain.
Pokemon Go is without a release date for Japan, but according to the game’s partner in Japan, McDonald’s, a release is coming soon. It has been a smash hit in countries including the U.S., Australia and elsewhere.
Pokemon Go had 21 million active users in the United States alone as of July 18 – less than two weeks after going live.
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The first said that the game would be getting its long-awaited launch in Japan today, while the other said that the Japanese launch would come with a corporate partnership with McDonald’s, which would see some 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants across Japan turned into Pokemon Gyms.
