Chris Gebauer
Niantic Aims to Launch Pokemon Go in Japan July's End
Pokemon Go will conquer the whole world soon enough.
07.17.16 - 9:00 PM

Throughout the wilds of Australia and New Zealand, the UK, US, and much of Europe, trainers have been catching Pokémon at an exemplary rate in the mobile phenomenon called Pokémon Go (seriously, it is taking over everything). And while the sensation is slowly releasing throughout the world, the game has yet to launch in Japan, the creative home of the series.

Pokemon GO

John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic (the developer of Pokemon Go) has stated that this is the result of the server capacity of Japan:

At present, the server capacity in Japan is not powerful enough. We are working hard with our partners in Japan to enable the servers to keep up with demand once the game goes online there. We expect it to be released by the end of July.

Makes sense. As anyone playing the game is most likely aware, Pokémon Go has suffered with server issues since its US launch and subsequent expansions, leading to problems accessing the game. Even so, Hanke expects the game to reach 200 more countries in the coming months.

China and Korea may not be one of those 200 though, at least not yet. The politics of those two nations, as well as limited Google Map data are creating launch problems:

Google’s map information system in Korea is limited due to security concerns over North Korea. In China, however, it is technically possible, but difficult to introduce due to the many hurdles, or should I say regulations we’d have to clear to get it to users.

Only time will tell. Have you been playing Pokémon Go? Let us know what you think about this social gaming phenomenon in the forums (it is everywhere here in NYC) and which team you joined.


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