Pokémon fans in 15 countries got their first chance to play wildly popular mobile game Pokémon Go over the weekend, but prospective players in China, India, and Korea are still waiting for the title to debut in their own territories.

Niantic confirmed trainer locations on Friday in the following countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.

pokemon go featured
Niantic CEO John Hanke told Forbes that Pokémon Go's introduction in Korea is proving particularly challenging, due to Google Maps' information system being limited because of security concerns over North Korea.

As for China, Hanke called a rollout "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."

Niantic has been silent on the reasons for the launch hold-up in India, which is home to a lucrative mobile market of over 200 million users.

Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Council of Virtual Spaces has temporarily banned Pokémon Go in the country. According to the BBC, the ban is related to "unspecified security concerns" and followed a short meeting where the council "were waiting to see to what extent the game's creators would co-operate with them".

The game has been downloaded 100 million times in the U.S. alone, and is reportedly responsible for doubling sales of portable smartphone battery backups as players roam for extended periods trying to locate Pokémon.

Its ratio of paid users to total users is said to be 10 times that of Candy Crush, which generated over $1 billion of revenue in both 2013 and 2014. According to brokerage Needham & Co, Apple is set to make $3 billion in revenue from the game's in-app purchases in the next one or two years.

Top Rated Comments

Chair-Sama Avatar
93 months ago
A few more weeks and it will be Pokémon Who?
funny, i remember seeing comments like this, saying it wouldnt make it past the second week ;)
its been, what, 4 weeks now and counting? still with a record player base,

has over 50 million downloads and counting. yep its going to disappear.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bushido Avatar
93 months ago
Game has lost its charm since they f up their very own pokemon map and block all the 3rd party maps. Nearly impossible to find a pokemon now. It shows it as closeby and u make one step and suddenly it drops to the last position.

Gyms are also pointless to take lver cuz it barely ever lasts 2 minutes let alone 20 hours

Their customer feedback is also non excisting and when they do release a comment they come off as total pricks
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fitshaced Avatar
93 months ago
Funny how you make these articles relevant by adding the mention of Apples profit from this app.

Pokemon Go already.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gav2k Avatar
93 months ago
India will be a big market but china will bring the servers down.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twocents Avatar
93 months ago
The game starts to go downhill after reaching level 20. Up till then it's a challenge to evolve and catch and hatch enough to get the points to have access to ultra balls. But after that, its the same exact game, with mostly the same creatures appearing nearby but are now more challenging to catch. Hope they add some new features soon
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chair-Sama Avatar
93 months ago
The game starts to go downhill after reaching level 20. Up till then it's a challenge to evolve and catch and hatch enough to get the points to have access to ultra balls. But after that, its the same exact game, with mostly the same creatures appearing nearby but are now more challenging to catch. Hope they add some new features soon
you are also discounting the loads of other features that will be added. just to name a few:

1. there are over 700+ pokemon to catch, this is jus the first 150 from the original games.
2. there is going to be a trading feature added, stated to be similar to the current nintendo DS style trading options.
3. there will be a battling feature added for battles outside of gyms, again, similar to the way the DS games handle battling.
4. Global and regional leader boards for things like, Number of gyms held by each team.
5. The fact that the Pokemon company LOVES themed events and giving away rare pokemon and items at them.
6. Things like TM's to change your pokemons moves down the road, and items to help boost your pokemon in battle(just like the current pokemon times

i honestly question that they know what they are even doing at this point. i mean they arent doing themselves any favor especially how quiet they always stay.

you are right. they only have a pretty successful game out that follows the same general concept. but nope, no idea ;)

it already shows where i live and I am not surprised. no new features, in fact they just take stuff out cuz they apparently have no idea how to fix it. STUPID and no statement whatsoever
see lets see, you would rather have a feature that does NOT work be in the game rather then them remove it, fix it, and then reimplement it? they only removed it about a week ago, maybe cut them some slack and give them another week?
they are only dealing with the most popular thing to hit the internet. ever. pokemon go has literally flooded the internet faster then any other thing to ever be on the internet. just looking up google searches alone it dwarfs any other "fad" or popular subject ever.
and the game is only 4 weeks old. you act like its going to die already or that they will never be able to fix it.
4 weeks and 4 updates so far. thats actually pretty impressive considering its a game who is quickly approaching 100m downloads at just over a month old, it took facebook/twitter/instagram years to hit the 100m mark at first. pokemon didnt even take a whole fiscal quarter to do so.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 With Bug Fixes, Plus iOS 17.0.2 for iPhone 15 Models

Thursday September 21, 2023 10:28 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates for the iPhone and the iPad, adding bug fixes to the new software. The iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates come just a few days after Apple launched iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. The software, which is build 21A340, can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. There is a...
iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature

iPhone 15 Models Feature New Setting to Strictly Prevent Charging Beyond 80%

Tuesday September 19, 2023 2:04 pm PDT by
All of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models feature a new battery health setting that prevents the devices from charging beyond 80% at all times when enabled, as confirmed by The Verge's Allison Johnson during a Q&A session today. The new setting is separate from the pre-existing Optimized Battery Charging feature on iPhones, which intelligently delays charging past 80% until a more...
emojipedia 15 1 emoji

Emoji Coming to Future iOS 17 Update Include Shaking Head, Brown Mushroom, Lime, Phoenix and More

Tuesday September 19, 2023 12:43 pm PDT by
As Apple was announcing new iPhone models last week, the Unicode Consortium was officially approving new emoji characters that are set to be added to smartphones starting in 2024. Mockup of new emoji from Emojipedia Approved Unicode 15.1 emoji include phoenix, lime, an edible mushroom, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake), and broken...
iPhone 15 Pro Max 5x Optical Zoom Limit Feature 1

Apple Explains Why iPhone 15 Pro Max is Limited to 5x Optical Zoom

Wednesday September 20, 2023 9:52 am PDT by
In an interview with Numerama's Nicolas Lellouche, Apple's VP of camera software engineering Jon McCormack explained why the iPhone 15 Pro Max's tetraprism lens system is limited to 5x optical zoom, instead of 10x like on Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra. The interview is in French, so quotes below are computer translated. Apple says the Telephoto lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max features the...