Bad news for nostalgic fans.. Pokémon Go won’t officially be coming to the UK for a long time
Pokémon Go is the hugely-popular augmented reality game which launched in America on Wednesday night
FOOTAGE from the futuristic new Pokémon game has been all over social media since it was launched in the US, but there's some bad news for British fans hoping to catch 'em all.
Pokémon Go is the hugely-popular augmented reality game which launched in America on Wednesday night, although fans this side of the Atlantic will have to hold onto their Poké Balls for a while longer.
The brand new game is played on Android and iOS devices, encouraging users to head outdoors in the search for Pokémon - which crop up in the user's immediate surroundings and appear on your screen accordingly.
Players have to move around in the real world in order to play the game, which allows users to catch, train and battle the virtual monsters as if they're right in front of you.
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The free-to-play game is designed so that Pokémon pop up in the surroundings they would logically be found in, with water-type creatures more likely to appear when you're near a body of water in real life.
But if you want to join in the fun and re-live the childhood classic using this cutting edge tech, then there's some sad news - Pokémon Go isn't officially coming to British shores any time soon.
John Hanke, boss of Niantic, who developed the game, confirmed that the groundbreaking augmented reality experience is going to be restricted to American and Australian players for now.
He said that the game will eventually be rolled out globally, but that plans to extend access to Pokémon go had been "paused" after it was so successful in America.
What is Pokémon Go?
- Pokémon Go is a newly released video game, which is played on mobile devices and downloaded through the app store
- It is an augmented reality game - meaning that the phone's screen displays your real-life surroundings through the camera as you play
- The fantasy monsters appear on the screen as you explore the world, showing up on your screen as if they're in the real world
- Players capture, train and battle the Pokémon they come across as they're out and about using the app
The game's success had crashed servers, as overwhelming demand caused Pokémon Go to crash in the wake of its launch.
CEO John said expansion to the UK and the Netherlands had been put on hold until the company was ready to deal with the extreme demand.
"We thought the game would be popular, but it obviously struck a nerve," Hanke said.
And the game has proved to be such already that it shot to the top of the US iPhone charts within hours of its release, becoming the top-grossing product within half a day.
But, with no word on when the app will be available in the UK, British Pokémon fans have been driven mad with anticipation.
Taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations, British trainers posted funny videos and angry Tweets demanding that the game is made available in the UK.
However, some dedicated British fans managed to get their hands on the game by using unofficial download links, prompting a surge of Brits to sign up and get playing in the days following the game's US release.