Rumor: Pokemon GO launching in Japan tomorrow; McDonald’s sponsoring
Niantic has been steadily releasing Pokemon GO in various countries over the last couple of days – by now, the game is available in most European and North American countries. One major market where it’s still not available however is Japan. Niantic has previously stated that they’re targeting “the end of July” for the game’s Japanese launch since additional server capacities were needed to facilitate the Japanese player base.
However, it seems like Japanese players won’t have to wait much longer. According to TechCrunch, Pokemon GO will in fact launch in Japan tomorrow. Additionally, over 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants are supposedly going to serve as sponsored gyms. This info comes from unnamed sources, according to TechCrunch.
Obviously, take this news with a grain of salt. While it makes sense for Niantic and The Pokemon Company to want to strike while the iron is hot and capitalize on Pokemon GO’s popularity on Nintendo’s home turf (coincidentally, Japanese summer holidays for students also start tomorrow), it would be a remarkably quick turnaround. The game is still plagued by various server and connection issues in other countries, and the addition of the massive Japanese mobile market would only add to that. I guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow!
