A player plays Pokemon GO in his car. (Photo : YouTube/ MasterOv)
Pokémon GO has become a worldwide hit despite not being released yet in other major parts of the world especially in Japan where the franchise was born but Niantic has a valid excuse.
The company, who is also behind the successful AR game Ingress, is currently having troubles with their servers as they keep on overloading. OurMine, a hacking group, has also claimed that they are the ones who have taken down the servers over the weekend after Pokémon GO launched in Canada and other countries outside of Asia.
Niantic has not confirmed the claims and is still optimistic about launching the AR game in more countries. Bad news for players in Japan as their official webpage for Pokémon GO has changed the release date from July 2016 to just 2016 which could signal that there will be a delay in the rollout, Kotaku has learned.
The news could crush the hopes of other countries in Asia considering that Japan should be a priority as it is the home country of Nintendo and the Pokémon franchise itself. Nevertheless, Niantic did not announce that it will not arrive in Japan and other nearby regions.
Niantic CEO John Hanke told Forbes that their server capacity cannot yet handle the load in Japan but they are already working with their "partners" to resolve the underlying issues in order to finally open Pokémon GO in the franchise's home and to nearby countries as well. He added that they do expect the Pokémon GO release date in Japan to still be within July.
In addition, Hanke said that they are also having troubles in launching Pokémon GO for China and Korea because of the limited map information systems due to the strictness of the governments. He added that there were also legal troubles in China because of the many regulations that the game needed to pass through.
Despite all of the problems and issues that Niantic is facing, the company is still trying its best to launch Pokémon GO to as many countries as possible. Pokémon GO launch in Asian countries could be next on their list as the second half of July has already started.
