In a new interview with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, the head of The Pokemon Company has confirmed more details about the rollout of Pokemon GO.
According to Serebii, which ran with the first translation, Pokemon Company CEO Tsnuekazu Ishihara told the Yomiuri Shimbun that North America, Japan and Europe would be the first three regions to get access to Pokemon GO. The game would then be brought to South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, although it wasn’t confirmed whether Australia or New Zealand was considered part of Asia in their thinking.
Ishihara reportedly also said that the company was working on another major project in the Pokemon universe. John Hanke, chief executive of Niantic — the company that developed Ingress, which is also working on Pokemon GO — will be talking about the mobile game on March 14 at this year’s Game Developers Conference.
“Attendees will get a first-hand, in-depth look at how players are interacting and exploring the world with one another through Pokemon GO,” the panel description says, “the collaborative approach to design and development for the game and the next evolution of augmented reality and real-world mobile gameplay experiences.”
We’ve reached out to Nintendo’s local team for confirmation; if we hear back or get any updates, we’ll let you know.
[Serebeii]
Comments
29 responses to “Reports: Pokemon GO Won’t Be Available In Australia Or New Zealand Straight Away”
Any chance you can reach out to Nintendo Australia for confirmation? Aus and NZ usually come under Europe for game releases.
I really hope this is the case.
It likley that Niantic will be in charge of the roll out rather than Nintendo. And they have been very hush about PGO details. Unlikley that we will find out before its released.
Yup this is my thinking, anything Nintendo Europe gets, we get generally.
FYI: Nintendo Australia didn’t have any further information regarding the reports, sadly.
I live around the corner from Nintendo Australia’s head office. I might swing by and see if they have anything to say
Please do, and let me know how it goes.
Nintendo ANZ virtually never announce game stuff, if Europe gets it and its by Nintendo or another serious dev, we get it too. And now thanks to the reformed game classification system, we miss out even less.
Australia is usually fairly high in the stakes for stuff like this, even with our fairly small population. Since we speak almost exactly the same language as the UK folks who make up a big part of the Eurpoe market, the only reason we wouldn’t get it would be something stupid.
“…another major project in the Pokemon universe.”
Sounds like Pokemon Z will be announced soonish.
I’m guessing that it’ll be announced in a week or so. Pokémon’s 20th anniversary is pretty darn close.
Nintendo usually consider us part of Europe (not Asia), so we might still be getting it first.
Reports: “Sounds about right,” say Australian consumers who are more used to this kind of thing than they probably should be.
^ This guy understands
Almost had pitchfork ready to go….will wait for europe/australia confirmation before raising.
Will be sharpening in the mean time.
We usually get left out in app releases in AU / NZ since we are generally a separate region by Apple.
There are tons of apps that was “worldwide” but does not cover AU / NZ region.
Hopefully this is not the case. I really want to play Pokemon GO.
That’s a misleading heading. A lack of confirmation of which region we’re in for release is not the same as confirming that it won’t be released here.
Agreed, but click bait pays.
The headline never said it wouldn’t be released here, that’s a tad unfair.
The headline has been changed from “Reports: Pokemon GO Won’t Be Available In Australia Or New Zealand” to “Reports: Pokemon GO Won’t Be Available In Australia Or New Zealand Straight Away”.
The time the article went up was the most important time because that is when you will get the majority of traffic, but at least it’s been changed to more accurately reflect the content.
I’m not meaning to sound harsh – I’m just desperate for Pokemon GO 🙂
Sorry, but that’s factually wrong. I’ve checked in the back end and the headline was “Reports: Pokemon GO Won’t Be Available In Australia Or New Zealand Straight Away” when the item was put into the back-end and it hasn’t been changed since publication.
I apologise, I’ve just checked my history and you are absolutely correct. The article title was not misleading or click bait.
All good, appreciate you being thorough.
Why can’t the entire internet just act like you two. Disagree, call out something, confirm it with facts, change your opinion through the discussion and part ways positively.
It’s okay if they stage the roll-out. It won’t be hard to find the apk.
This is very possibly misinformation. The Serebii translation has been called into question here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/46dtx6/a_closer_look_at_yesterdays_region_release/
Does anyone actually know when the exact release date is, because I’m actually on the edge of my seat and also I think that since gamers like me have been sitting on our butts all day I think that Pokemon go is trying to get us healthy and fit again also to broaden our social life!
Oh the joy of being on Guam. Usually Guam is a part of North America in many releases….but sometimes we get bulked in the grand package that is Oceania including Australia and New Zealand…. so as luck may have it, we are in the geographic location that everyone forgets about…if ANZ is released with Europe then Guam better be released with North America.
Oh and does anyone know if you get a starter Pokemon
Usually Kotaku is correct with their information, however, in this case it is wrong. Australia IS CONSIDERED A PART OF EUROPE BY NINTENDO, and release dates for most other Pokemon games are released AT THE SAME TIME IN AUSTRALIA AND NZ AS THEY ARE IN EUROPE.