Copy of Pokemon Go tops charts in China

The huge success of Pokemon Go, a mobile game that has rocketed to the top of Apple Inc and Android app stores in record time, has boosted shares of Japanese video games giant Nintendo.

Wednesday’s German launch had prompted speculation that a wider European launch was around the corner, but developer Niantic had yet to confirm anything, making Thursday’s release a welcome surprise.

The head of marketing for Pokemon Go at Niantic Labs, Archit Bhargava, recently expressed his desire to see a similar concept applied to the popular TV show.

Still, it’s interesting that so many people were surprised and outraged about this. If a simple Flashlight app is created to access far more data than it needs for collection purposes, why not an augmented-reality (AR) gaming app that obviously has to know and track your location for you to find all the Pokemons (and is undoubtedly collecting and storing that data)?

“Why limit it?” John Hanke, chief executive of Niantic, which developed Pokemon Go jointly with Nintendo affiliate Pokemon Company, said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

Already downloaded the United States version of the app?

“People have proven time and time again that they’ll click recklessly to get access to new, prohibited or early-release software”, Mr Erlin said. Players apparently do have to go to the real world locations to catch the monsters, which is cool.

During events, she asked all participants to “avoid using smartphones when walking”, and recommended that “Pokemon Go” players, too, should keep that in mind.

It’s also possible to use hacked versions to fake one’s location, Quartz adds (see above).

And then there’s all the people who aren’t watching where they’re walking – or worse, where they’re driving.