Niantic Labs has released the Pokémon GO game for Australia, United States and New Zealand but users in Japan and the rest of the world are left to download the APK file from third parties.
There was a statement saying that people outside of the available market should wait for the global launch of the game. However, users are impatient and they immediately downloaded the Pokémon GO APK from other sites away from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
It allowed users from other countries to try out the game for themselves and to see what Pokémon their area has to offer and if there are any Legendary Pokémon around. Niantic supposedly used the data from their Ingress AR game to set the landmarks and points of interest for Pokéstops and Pokémon Gyms.
Pokémon GO APK can be downloaded at APK Mirror and it was uploaded by Android Police, CNET has learned. Users can download the file and install it by enabling the option on their Android phones to install apps from unknown sources.
There are some problems that people have run into when attempting to play Pokémon GO. One major deal breaker is that the game does not support Intel mobile chipsets, which are used in a variety of Zenfone 2 models.
Niantic and The Pokémon Company have not announced whether they will be providing support for Intel chipsets soon, but the fact that they already have released the game after the beta testing may prove that they do not have plans to do so.
Those who downloaded the Pokémon GO APK file should also be cautious as there could be malware attached with the download, iDigitalTimes reported. Some publications are also spreading the rumor that users could get banned by Niantic if they used the third-party files but they do not have proof.
Most users are even reporting now that all of the points of interest in Pokémon GO are gone. There aren't even any Pokémon around, which suggests that Niantic has blocked players outside Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. in accessing their servers.
Pokémon GO is now available for users in Australia and the U.S. but there are no announcements yet for those who are in Japan and other countries. The Pokémon GO APK seems to be a bad alternative for now as Niantic reportedly blocked the access.