Pokemon GO Is A Go, But Only In Australia, New Zealand

That didn't take too long. While we were still busy musing the date for the launch of Pokemon GO, Niantic Labs was apparently busy actually launching it. The much awaited, but still doubted, "sort of" augmented reality game is finally rolling out to everyone. And by "everyone", we mean "everyone who happens to be located in Australia and New Zealand". That isn't completely surprising, as these two countries did get the trial run first before anyone else. It does mean that it will only be a matter of time before it becomes available to everyone in the world, legitimately or otherwise.

What Pokemon fan can resist the offer of getting a feel, even if faked, of capturing Pokemon out in the wild in the real world? Of course, it sounds almost too good to be true, so many unsurprisingly have their reservations, taking a wait and see attitude. Well, they won't have to wait that long anymore, as the public rollout of Pokemon GO has started. We anxiously await word from the land down under on how this game will play out in practice.

There are still a lot of missing pieces to the Pokemon GO picture, like the diversity of Pokemon available in real-world regions. Hopefully it won't have to involve traveling around the world just to catch 'em all, but that doesn't sound far-fetched either. Then there's the question of price. While the app itself is free of charge, it will undoubtedly feature a ton in-app purchases. Whether those will be critical or merely aesthetic remains to be seen. And there's the matter of the Pokemon GO Plus accessory, which should be launching soon afterwards.

Pokemon GO is available for both iOS (AU link) and Android, so no one's left out of the fun. We expect the next few hours and days to be littered with posts of Pokemon caught in the wild, and maybe some people caught using their smartphones where they shouldn't, just to catch that Pokemon.