Pokemon Go targeting global rollout ‘soon’ as Nintendo shares skyrocket

You think Pokemon Go is big now? You wait until it’s available in every country on the planet. And that might not be that far out.

Niantic chief executive John Hanke has told Reuters that his company intends to roll out Pokemon Go to around 200 countries relatively soon”. By some counts there aren’t even 200 countries in the world (the official count is 195, but it’s actually a more complicated question than you’d think), so that’s quite the target.

Nintendo’s stock price has surged once again on the back of the comments, setting a record for daily trading volume for an individual stock. Week-on-week the shares are now up 86 per cent, representing an additional $17bn for the company’s value.

This expansion also includes a probably release in South Korea where, interestingly, digital mapping is limited due to security concerns involving North Korea. A Chinese launch is less certain due to the region’s assorted regulations, however.

A timeframe for this task was not given, although it was pointed out that Niantic’s debut location based game Ingress took a month or two” to reach the same milestone.

Why limit it?” Hanke added.