While Pokemon Go is officially available in Australia, New Zealand, and the US, it’s yet to make its way to other nations such as India and Japan. This has resulted in a slew of fans the world over to sideload the game. Well, at least on Android.
(Also see: Pokemon Go International Release Date Soon: Report)
The impact of these players, in addition to those in countries where Pokemon Go is available, is that the game has been uplayable for a vast number of people due to its servers unable to deal with the load. So much so that developer Niantic who made Pokemon Go along with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company is delaying its release in other markets till this is fixed.
“We thought the game would be popular, but it obviously struck a nerve,” Niantic CEO John Hanke saidto Business Insider, stating that the launch in other countries has been “paused until we’re comfortable”. Despite the rabid interest the franchise has generated over the years, something Niantic is aware of, it has been caught by surprise.
(Also see: Playing Pokemon Go in India? Here’s Everything You Need to Know)
Earlier this week, the game was discovered on Australia and New Zealand app stores. Usually, most developers use these markets to test out certain aspects of the game such as microtransaction prices and certain design elements. We’ve seen that with titles from other big name publishers like Rovio and EA. Chances are, the same applies here. The US launch seems like a knee-jerk reaction and server overloads seem like a result of this. The fact that the game is easily accessible on Android for those not in the aforementioned markets simply compounds matters.
Nonetheless, we’ve got the game working just fine. You can check out our impressions here.
