Mike Wuerthele
The blockbuster hit Pokémon Go was issued its second update on Wednesday, fixing login problems. In addition, code inspections seem to point to fast food chain McDonalds as a future app sponsor, potentially for in-game "Pokestop" locations.
Pokémon Go version 1.0.2 is now available on the iOS App Store. Other than the update repairing the Pokemon Trainer Club login issue, which manifested itself after yesterday's fix for the Google account permissions issue, no other fixes are noted.
Following Tuesday's patch, an effort to decompile the Pokémon Go Android code (which shares assets with the iOS code base) has led to revelations of a possible McDonalds sponsorship. Embedded in the game's code and assets are text references and iconography for the restaurant.
McDonalds has already run several Pokémon-themed promotions over the last 15 years, with most of the efforts involving Happy Meal toys.
Developer Niantic's Chief Executive John Hanke, speaking with the New York Times said that the company would be announcing sponsored locations for Pokémon Go in the future.
Similar augmented reality title Ingress, also developed by Niantic, has had promotional offers from companies in the past, such as one in February 2016 with Hint Water. The previous title has a million-strong regular player base, which Hanke says is significantly less than the Pokémon Go user base even in limited markets worldwide.
No timetable for any promotional offerings have been announced. Hanke also noted that the company "expected [Pokémon Go] to be popular, but we didn't expect it to be like this," adding that "we're just getting our feet underneath us."
Pokémon Go is a joint effort between Niantic and the various companies responsible for the Pokémon intellectual property, including Nintendo. The game launched on Wednesday in Germany, marking the fourth country where the game is available, joining its debut last week in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
Version 1.0.2 of Pokémon Go is available from the iOS App Store, and requires iOS 8 or greater. AppleInsider has experienced difficulty getting it to run on the iOS 10 beta.
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Charles Martin
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6 Comments
I read earlier that this is already the biggest mobile game in history.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that this is not the last Pokemon article that we'll be seeing. :#
Probably not. We were talking about this in the "newsroom." We've never seen anything like this before, and it speaks to the power of AUGMENTED reality versus VIRTUAL reality.
Wow, the potential, rather obvious, implications are mind-blowing. Just think of this. The game is astoundingly popular, more active users than Twitter. And now it would appear Nintendo is creating a marketplace, to capture more value from their game. The game takes place in real locations, where countless business opportunities are created for brick-and-mortar establishments to capitalize whenever Nintendo opens the marketplace for PokéStops (physical places a gamer must be to receive usuful items for gameplay), or other in-game elements. The possibilities for revenue generation is incredible.
Imagine Disneyland putting down massive sums of money for strategically placed PokéStops where special, highly desired, Pokémon are available to catch. The gamers would have to buy admission to the park in order to gain physical access to the PokéStop locations deep within their amusement park boundaries.
"Blockbuster" is an understatement but I wouldn't know what to call this either.
A few days ago I predicted it would be the biggest video game in history but that wasn't a tough call.
if anyone knows Nintendo, like me, they'll have promotional Pokemon only available at certain locations and possibly for a limited time.
I remember when the first one came out and they were giving away Mew(my favorite Pokemon) at Toys R Us for a day.
15 years later and it still breaks my heart that I couldn't make it to Toys R Us that day.