Release

Release

Regional availability

Global release dates for Pokémon Go[show]
The game's extended launch began on July 6, 2016, with releases in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Due to server strain from high demand upon release, Niantic CEO John Hanke stated that the release in most other regions was "paused until Niantic was comfortable" fixing the issues.[57][58] European releases started on July 13, and the game became available to most of the continent over the following ten days.[45] The Japanese launch was initially reported to be on July 20;[59] however, the game was delayed after a sponsorship deal with fast food chain McDonald's was leaked,[60][61] instead releasing on July 22.[50] Although the game was proposed to be released in France on July 15, it was postponed until July 24 out of respect and due to safety concerns following a terrorist attack in Nice on July 14.[51][62] Following the shut down of third-party apps and websites in late-July 2016—significantly reducing server strain—Niantic was able to continue pushing release worldwide. Central and South America and most of Southeast Asia subsequently saw releases in early August.[53][55] Indonesia was the first Asian country to have the game playable; despite the game not being officially released in that region until August 6, people have been playing it since early July.[63][64]
In South Korea, the game has not been released yet and major restrictions on the use of online mapping data exist. However, due to a glitch, a small area around Sokcho in the northeastern part of the country was considered a part of Niantic's North Korea mapping region, making the game fully playable in that area.[65][66] Numerous people have taken advantage of the gap to play the game. Bus tickets from the capital city of Seoul sold out and people living within Sokcho shared information on free Wi-Fi areas to tourists.[67] Players also discovered a gym in Panmunjom, along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; however, Niantic later removed it from the game.[68] Following the release of Pokémon Go in Japan, parts of Busan also became playable as parts of the city are considered part of Japan's mapping area due to the proximity of Tsushima Island.[69]
In mainland China, Google services are banned by the Great Firewall. Players of Pokémon Go in China bought Australian App Store IDs and used a GPS spoofing app to use Google services and because there are no Pokémon to catch in China. Many Chinese people downloaded a clone app called City Spirit Go, which was released shortly after Pokémon Go's beta test in Japan.[70] However, some of the boundary regions where are next to the countries which are released Pokémon Go. Shenzhen was become the first city in China where has been available to play after Pokémon Go was released in Hong Kong at July 25, 2016.
During its launch in Southeast Asia, the game officially excluded Myanmar (Burma), but gamers around Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi have discovered that the game is fully playable after its release in Thailand.[71]
Commercial response
Nintendo

A graph of Nintendo's stock value in July 2016 depicting the surge in investment following Pokémon Go's release on July 7 and subsequent slump on July 25
Investors were buoyed by the response to the initial release of Pokémon Go on July 7, with Nintendo's share price rising by an initial 10%[72] and by July 14 shares rose to as high as 50%.[73] Despite Nintendo only owning a 32% stake in the Pokémon franchise, an undisclosed stake in Niantic,[74] and prospectively receiving only 30% of the Pokémon Go sales revenue,[75] Nintendo's market value increased by US$9 billion within five days of release of Pokémon Go.[76] The trend continued for more than a week after the game's release and by July 19, the stock value of Nintendo more than doubled as compared to pre-release. Turnover sales reached a record-breaking ¥703.6 billion (US$6.6 billion); and trading of the stock accounted for a quarter of all trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board.[77] The Financial Times believed that investors were speculating not on Pokémon Go as such, but on future Nintendo app releases being as successful as the company moves more into the mobile app market—an area they were historically reluctant to enter in the belief it would damage its portable console sales.[78] Nintendo plans to release four more smartphone app games by March 2017, and investors remarked that Pokémon Go showed Nintendo still has some of the "most valuable character intellectual property in the world" with franchises such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid.[79]
By July 22, Nintendo gained ¥1.8 trillion ($17.6 billion) in market capitalization since the game's launch.[80] However, following clarification from Nintendo that the company did not produce Pokémon Go nor have tangible financial gains from it, its stock fell by 18%—equating to a ¥708 billion ($6.7 billion) loss in market value—on July 25.[80][81] This was the largest single-day decline for Nintendo since 1990 and the maximum one-day exchange of finances allowed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company has an approximate 13% "effective economic stake" in the app according to Macquarie Securities.[80]

Other companies
The surge in stocks extended beyond just Nintendo, with First Baking Co., Tomy, TV Tokyo, and Bank of Kyoto all seeing significant to near-record gains.[82] Similarly, Zagg, which owns a company that manufactures battery cases, saw a 25% rise in its stock in relation to Pokémon Go.[83]

Technical issues
At launch, the game suffered from frequent server outages due to extreme usage.[84] Frequent crashes and authentication errors plagued the game's release and persisted for several days. For the first two days after launch, players were unable to access the game through their Pokémon Trainer Club accounts; only Gmail-based accounts were able to gain access to the game.[85] Servers again suffered frequent outages in Australia on July 11; players blamed people in the United Kingdom for bypassing local servers and using Australian ones to play the game before its official release.[86] On July 16, a few hours after the release in many European countries, the game's servers temporarily went down.[87] The outage was claimed by a hacking group called "PoodleCorp", who said they used a DDoS attack to take them down.[88] The official Pokémon Go Twitter page noticed the outage and the problem was fixed later that day.[87][89] The next day, the servers went down again as the game was launched in Canada.[90] John Hanke issued an apology for the server issues at Comic Con 2016, stating "we weren't provisioned for what happened".[32]
Some early iOS installs of Pokémon Go required users to provide the app with full access to their Google accounts, thereby allowing the app to "access players' Gmail-based email, Google Drive-based files, photos and videos stored in Google Photos, and any other content within their Google accounts".[91][92][93] The Pokémon Company and Niantic responded to the concerns, recognizing that the iOS app, at the time, "... erroneously requests full access permission for the user's Google account ..."[94][95] However, Adam Reeve—the person who initially made claims of the security issues in a Tumblr post—later backtracked on his claim and was not "100 percent sure" it was valid.[96][97] Dan Guido, CEO of the security company Trail of Bits, analyzed the app's programming and discovered that although the game did request full account access, this did not enable third-party usage as initially conveyed. Guido found that this did enable Niantic to access people's email addresses and phone numbers unintentionally.[96] A subsequent iOS app update reduced the scope of access.[98] Niantic also issued a statement assuring users that no information was collected nor was any information beyond what was necessary to use the app accessed.[97]

Glitches
Alongside server issues, Pokémon Go suffered from several glitches. One of the more prominent bugs appeared in mid-July 2016 and rendered the game's tracking feature useless. Normally, this feature shows between zero and three footprints to inform the player of how close they are to a nearby Pokémon; however, it universally became "stuck" at three steps, earning it the name "three-step-glitch".[99] Niantic removed the footstep feature altogether on July 30,[100] sparking criticism from players.[101] By August 1, players reported a new glitch that swaps their captured Pokémon with another creature at random.[102] Another bug, confirmed by Niantic in August, inadvertently made capturing Pokémon more difficult. Some legendary Pokémon, which are rare and powerful versions of the creatures, were also obtained by players in a glitch, though they were later removed from the accounts of the trainers to keep the game fair.[103]



From: Wikipedia