Pokemon Go hunters crowd Sokcho
By Yoon Sung-won
Gamers search for collectible virtual monsters on the augmented reality-based mobile game ‘Pokemon Go’ using their smartphones on a coastal road in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Thursday. Gamers are crowding into Sokcho as the mobile game is available in the region even though it has not been launched in Korea. / Yonhap
The popularity of “Pokemon Go” is exploding in North America and Oceania, drawing anxious anticipation from Asian and European countries where the augmented reality (AR)-based mobile game is not yet available.
On the back of the huge fan base of Japan’s “Pokemon” franchise, the game is a sensation especially in the United States. In the game, which is based not only on AR but also real-time geospatial technologies and Google’s map data, users interact with both real and virtual objects depicted in the physical world to search for possible locations of collectible monsters.
Though the game is not officially provided in most parts of Korea, it has been available in some remote regions including Sokcho, Yangyang, Goseong and Inje in Gangwon Province as well as Ulleungdo as they are interstitially located between the two Koreas and Japan.
In particular, those who seek to play it in Korea are rushing to Sokcho, causing an unexpected tourism boom in the region.
City administrations reacted quickly to seize the opportunity to attract tourists. On Thursday, Sokcho Mayor Lee Byung-seon posted a promotion video on Facebook featuring himself catching one of the monsters in his office. “The Pokemon craze came to our city as an unexpected piece of luck,” Lee said in the video.
Expectations are that users in South Gyeongsang Province as well as Busan will also be able to play Pokemon Go once the game is launched in Japan, as the region is close to the Japanese island of Tsushima.
According to local mobile market researcher WiseApp, it is estimated that about 410,000 users here have downloaded the game through detour channels as of Thursday.
“The number is surprisingly high considering that users had to separately download the app and install it manually,” an official at WiseApp said.
However, Pokemon Go is not likely see an official release anytime soon in Korea, as it is based on map data from Google, which is unavailable here as of now.
Under the government’s policy that prohibits export of uncensored map data overseas without permission, Google has failed to provide a proper map service in Korea for the last six years. The company has refused to accept the government’s inaccurate and censored map data, which is free to export without permission, as it is insufficient for location-based services such as navigation and AR.
Despite repeated refusals, Google has continued to apply for permission and the government is scheduled to make its decision by Aug. 25.
The game was produced by U.S. game studio Niantic. Its first official launch was in the United States, Australia and New Zealand on July 6 through Google Play and Apple Appstore, followed by Germany on Thursday.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Niantic was started by its founder and CEO John Hanke as an internal startup of Google in 2010, becoming an independent mobile game development company last year. Before Pokemon Go, Niantic launched the mobile game “Ingress”which is also based on AR and GPS technologies.
Niantic developed the game in partnership with Pokemon Company and Nintendo. The two Japanese companies and Google have invested $30 million in the development of the mobile game.
Separately to the mobile game, Nintendo has released a wearable gaming accessory watch named “Pokemon Go Plus” also drawing much attention from users. Based on Bluetooth technology, the device helps users catch monsters more conveniently. The device has already been sold out on Amazon.
According to data by mobile application market researcher Survey Monkey Intelligence, Pokemon Go became one of the most popular mobile games in the U.S., attracting over 21 million peak daily active users as of Tuesday, only six days after its July 6 release. With this achievement, The game broke the previous record of 20 million set by King’s mobile puzzle game “Candy Crush Saga” in 2013.
“Pokemon Go is unnaturally popular here in the United States like a social phenomenon,” said a 30-year-old office worker in San Jose, California. “People are gathering everywhere to play the game together. I even saw a man walking down the street in the middle of the night playing it.”
Even in countries like Japan, Canada, Costa Rica and the Netherlands, where Pokemon Go has not been officially introduced, Android smartphone users are downloading the application from detour websites.