Mobile sensation Pokémon Go is to be given an official Chinese release as its North American studio makes a domestic publishing deal. Augmented reality game Pokémon Go is moving closer to a Chinese release after San Francisco developer Niantic, Inc and China's NetEase announced a publishing agreement, per the Financial Times. Making its international debut in July 2016, Pokémon Go blends the fictional creatures of the Pokémon franchise with Niantic's augmented reality global positioning system, earlier seen in 2013 release Ingress. Players attempt to find and collect Pokémon creatures, seen on their smartphone displays and layered on top of live images of the real world obtained through the smartphone's rear camera. Virtual and physical worlds combine as players congregate in and around public spaces, monuments, and malls to participate in special events and claim in-game locations for one of three teams. It reached 100 million downloads worldwide in the 25 days following its July 6 North American and Australian debut, though the Chinese government withheld a domestic license for Pokémon Go pending further review, citing personal safety, transport issues, and geographical information security issues in a January 2017 report. Niantic is considered far more likely to gain approval in the world's largest mobile games market now that it has partnered with established Chinese publisher NetEase. The San Francisco company, spun off from Google in 2015, continues to develop Pokémon Go, and in November 2017 announced Harry Potter: Wizards Unite for 2018, which is expected to maintain the core location-based, augmented reality exploration experience of Pokémon Go. — AFP Relaxnews
Nintendo's Pokémon Go has moved a big step closer to being approved for launch in China after a publishing partnership deal between Pokemon Go's US developer, Niantic, and China's NetEase was agreed. Although Pokémon Go has been a great success in the San Francisco and internationally, the Beijing government had withheld a domestic licence for the mobile game pending a review of safety and security issues.