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Pokemon Go craze finally hits South Korea

The mobile phenomenon has been held back by tight governmental control of Google Maps.

Daniel Van Boom Senior Writer
Daniel Van Boom is an award-winning Senior Writer based in Sydney, Australia. Daniel Van Boom covers cryptocurrency, NFTs, culture and global issues. When not writing, Daniel Van Boom practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reads as much as he can, and speaks about himself in the third person.
Expertise Cryptocurrency, Culture, International News
Daniel Van Boom

Pokemon Go shook up the mobile and game worlds like no app before it. But for South Koreans, the Pokemon Go party just started.

Six months after launching in the west, the game was finally released in South Korea on Tuesday, Niantic announced via Twitter .

The cause for delay? Google Maps , which Pokemon Go needs access to, is tightly controlled by the government for national security, Reuters reports.

Released in early July, Pokemon Go has been downloaded an astonishing 500 million times, though many have since moved on. Niantic is working at growing the active-player base, regularly updating the game. Pokemon Go last month got arguably its biggest update, with a handful of new Pokemon from the Silver/Gold generation being introduced.

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