‘Pokemon GO’ China Updates: Released Date is Imminent; There’s Still Hope for Chinese Players?

There is a glimmer of hope for the Chinese people who wanted to play 'Pokemon GO' badly. The regulatory approval of the Chinese government to Nintendo is rumored to be imminent, that is if Nintendo applied for the approval under 80 days processing.

'Pokemon GO' has made its debut to almost all of the countries around the world except for China, India and South Korea - the world's leading countries in gaming. And that's despite the large amount generated from the gaming market of the three aforementioned countries with an estimated of $7 billion annually.

For China's case, Forbes reported that Nintendo should follow the licensing procedure laid by the Chinese government. The regulatory approval will take maximum of 80 days for the Chinese government to examine the mobile games before placing them online. There is still no confirmation from Nintendo's end whether or not they followed the law stipulated by China because the process "requires no small amount of work" according to Linekong Vice President Wang Shiying. However, in the official Facebook account of 'Pokemon GO' Nintendo said that "For now, Nintendo won't be available for China." The word "for now" drastically means "temporarily" or "not permanently".

Hacking attempts in China was of one the possible reasons why 'Pokemon GO' China is not yet released according to Mobipicker. Prior to the original date of release, Niantic stated that it was going to be postponed due to third party hacking attempts and trying to access the Pokemon GO servers. Another cited possible reason is the blocking of Google Accounts and Google Maps by Chinese government in 2010 due to censorship concerns and unfortunately, these two are required by Pokemon GO app.

Chinese people are never giving up. They became more hopeful following the launching of Pokemon GO in Hong Kong. Also, Niantic and Nintendo are not closing their doors for the Mainland China. According to Next Shark, the delay might be due to Niantic finding other means to make the game playable in China.