After Niantic Labs and Nintendo launched Pokémon Go in the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the companies decided to pause their rollout of the game globally to address major server problems. According to the Wall Street Journal, the companies have started to solve those issues and are hoping to launch the game in Europe, Japan and other Asian countries in just a few days.
Pokémon Go launched in the aforementioned three countries on July 5, and originally, Niantic was hoping to roll the game out into other regions that same week. Once the game was live, however, people started complaining almost instantly about issues with the servers not loading, being locked out of their accounts and being forced to log into the game multiple times during one play session. It was because of the game's serious technical problems that Niantic decided to wait on releasing the game globally, much to the chagrin of Pokémon trainers in multiple regions.
Niantic CEO John Hanke told Business Insider that until the company felt comfortable with the technical aspects of the game, players in other regions would unfortunately have to wait. The delay has led to an increase in Android users using side-loading APK files and iOS users making American accounts in order to download the game. Players are being warned to stay away from doing this, however, as recent APK files have been identified as malware.
There is currently no update on when players in South America and Canada will be able to get their hands on the game.
To keep up to date with the latest Pokemon Go news and other top stories of the day, sign up for the new Polygon Newsletter!
