Niantic Labs, The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are slowly growing their empire through making Pokemon Go available in various regions around the world. Three more countries have joined in on the fray, those living in southern Europe can now attempt to catch 'em all.
Gamespot is reporting that Niantic Labs has managed to secure the release of Pokemon Go in Portugal, Spain and Italy. These are the three new countries added to Pokemon Go's ever-expanding repertoire of regional locations. The game is already available in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The news about the game's availability in the three southern European countries came via the official Pokemon Go Twitter account, which stated the following.
According to Niantic Labs' CEO, John Hanke, they have no plans on stopping with the countries where the game is currently available. They want to take it as far and as wide as possible, including expanding the game to more than 200 different countries. They plan on hitting the Asian territories next, with Japan and South Korea due to receive Pokemon Go.
Hanke apparently explained to Reuters that the Google Maps function has been a slight hold-up for getting the game up and out in South Korea, but they're fixing to make a workaround to get things operational. Part of it is that Google Maps has limited functionality due to South Korea's attachment to North Korea.
At the moment they're having some difficulty getting Pokemon Go out in China because Google Maps over there isn't quite as free-flowing as it is in other countries. They have geographical restrictions on the kind of data that can be logged in apps like Google Maps, and that's entirely what Pokemon Go relies on in order to function. Gamespot is reporting that Hanke has made no commitments or announcements about the game launching in the biggest mobile market in the world.
Reuters is reporting that there's already some media propaganda in China where people are claiming that Japan and America want to use Pokemon Go to find their secret military bases. Some people on the forums apparently stated that if there are Pokemon cluttered in an area that have never been captured, it's safe to assume that it's a restricted civilian area, thus America and Japan could plot out missile strikes on those parts based on where a bunch of uncaptured Pokemon are gathered.
Forum theories can be highly entertaining.
The truth of the matter is that Pokemon Go hasn't released in China because the Chinese Ministry of Culture haven't given it a thumbs up, Niantic Labs haven't navigated the 10 rules of censorship yet, and their parent company have yet to sign off on making a version that adheres to China's regulatory policies. That doesn't mean we won't ever see Pokemon Go in China... it's just a hill climb to get it there.
Expect it to launch in various other territories before we receive news about a release in China. It's not unlikely that the game may appear there eventually, they just may have to work through a lot of the rules to make it possible.
