Pokémon Go is an enormous success, the game should bring up to $1 billion of profit for Niantic by the end of the year, even though the game hasn’t launched in some big markets. Some of those markets, like India, China, and South Korea should’ve already seen the official launch, but Niantic stated that they had to postpone it due to third-party hacking attempts, trying to access Pokémon GO servers.
A statement released by the company reads “We were delayed in doing that due to aggressive efforts by third parties to access our servers outside of the Pokémon GO game client and our terms of service. We blocked some more of those attempts yesterday.”
John Hanke, CEO of Niantic added that “There is a range of motives here from blatant commercial ventures to enthusiastic fans but the negative impact on game resources is the same.”
Although India, China, and South Korea launch has been delayed, other Asian countries, like Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia, already saw the official release of Pokémon Go. The game also officially launched in Central and Latin America, but it seems that hacking attempts changed the planned release calendar, making Pokémon fans in some Asian countries to wait a bit more before the game becomes available.
This all comes after Niantic shut down third-party trackers, which lead to Hanke’s Twitter account being compromised. The group that took the responsibility for it, Our Mine, is the same group responsible for the hacking of Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, some time ago.
As for now, there’s no precise date for the India, China, and South Korea launch, so if you’re a fan of the game, you’ll have to wait “a bit more” before Pokémon GO officially comes to your country. For those who are curious to play the game right now, you still have an option and that is not a illegal way. You can simply download Pokemon GO APK for free and enjoy the game in your country.