Pokémon Go launched in a handful of countries in Asia at the beginning of this month, and it’s reportedly having positive effects on both players and businesses. While businesses are seeing surges in customer interaction and sales, players are spending more time interacting with the game which requires them to explore their local areas. According to a recent report, some players have gone as far as to seek out a new carrier which offered better deals on data plans that would allow them to play the game more reliably, and thus have more fun as they could actually play the game more.
Countries like Indonesia are seeing an increased level of popularity for the game. A local electronics shop in Jakarta notes that players are looking for alternative options for extending their data capacity as opposed to increasing their data packages through their carriers. PT Smartfren Telecom, a company which makes modems for the wireless industry is seeing an increase in their business as well as players search for a way to connect to the internet in areas which may have spotty or otherwise little coverage from wireless carriers, allowing them to stay connected and continue hunting down Pokémon in the quest to “catch ’em all.”
In addition to looking for ways to continue playing for extended periods, gamers in Indonesia have sought out the use of proxy sites to access app stores from other regions, in order to get a hold of the game and download it onto their devices before the official launch took place. Of course, this is nothing new as smartphone users have been using this method to access apps and games from outside of their region before it launched locally for quite some time. The surge in business and player interaction is also something which is by no means unique to Indonesia and other regions of Asia, as places like GameStop, RadioShack, and others have been setting up PokéStops at retail stores in an attempt to drive up business and sales of things like battery packs and other accessories that could help during gameplay. It does go to show though, that popularity of Pokémon GO is still soaring and will likely continue to do so as it rolls out to more and more regions around the globe.