Nintendo had been struggling in recent years as people shifted to playing games on smartphones rather than home or hand-held consoles, and the Kyoto-based game innovator was reluctant to enter the field. But a year ago, Nintendo finally announced it would jump into the smartphone fray.
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Chinese players will probably have to wait a while longer before Pokemon Go rolls out, as there are regulations that have to be considered for the region. But it’s not that simple.
Analysts said the frenzy does not necessarily promise a bright future because the game was not directly developed by Nintendo, which also means its contribution to earnings also will remain unclear.
The augmented reality game that has been sweeping the world can now legitimately be downloaded on IOS and Android devices in the UK. Chief executive John Hanke said in an interview that it would be technically possible to launch in China, but noted a host of complex rules and restrictions. The idea is that the U.S. and Japanese game developers can track down the location of Chinese military bases by process of elimination. Nintendo has given no indication as to when or whether Pokemon GO will be released in China.
“There is no doubt about that”, he said. Online reports suggest that till yesterday Pokemon Go had a massive 21 million users in US alone which broke Candy Crushes record of highest active users at any point of time worldwide which was 20 million.
If such is the case, we can expect Pokemon fans everywhere to be checking the Niantic Pokemon Go page daily for formal announcements of new country announcements.
The game now has more active users than popular social media apps such as Twitter and Instagram.
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The game has become so popular that it is now the top-downloaded app in Apple’s App Store and is the biggest mobile game in U.S. history. Developer Niantic says it hopes to bring the title to 200 markets “relatively soon”.
