Pokémon GO is still a hugely popular mobile app that’s played by fans everyday, so it might surprise some to know that it’s not available everywhere. This was made very apparent when the mobile game was made briefly available in China, only to see it pulled for legal reasons.
Gaming subreddit The Silph Road (via Eurogamer) revealed that players in China were able to play the game briefly, even capturing critters in certain places. Some players even made in-game postcards in Tiananmen Square, a controversial area after the 1989 student massacre took place, which is pretty unfortunate.
Interestingly enough, the report also claims that Pokémon GO was also briefly playable in Russia, before it was once again pulled. While GO was never available in certain parts of China, the app was pulled from Russia due to the ongoing war with Ukraine.
At the time of writing, Niantic has yet to comment on these games briefly being available in these regions, so it looks like this was just a glitch. Gaming companies would make a huge deal if their games were available in China, so we doubt this was a soft launch or anything like that.
China’s gaming laws are a mystery to many, which is why you don’t see too many official releases in the country. The Nintendo Switch wasn’t even available for purchase until a few years ago, when they finally allowed this huge system to come out. Obviously. Chine has a ton of their own games to work on, Zenless Zone Zero is a huge hit, but console releases are few and far between.
Niantic does seem to be working on something big for Pokémon GO, with recent promotional art teasing Dynamax mechanics for the mobile app. Don’t expect to see this mobile app go away, as fans continue to love finding Pokémon while they walk around. It is a free download after all, even if the pay-to-win mechanics can be pretty annoying.