Niantic, the firm behind Ingress and Pokémon Go has struck a partnership with the Chinese company NetEase. The move means Chinese gamers will be able to experience Pokémon Go for the first time when the two companies decide to deploy the game in the country. While the deal is a big step forward, no date of availability has been announced yet.
John Hanke, CEO at Niantic, announced the breakthrough to the Financial Times (FT), explaining that it “absolutely” wants to bring its games to the biggest market in the world. Due to Chinese laws covering online content, Niantic has to find a partner company in China to launch its games into the country; now that this obstacle has been overcome the firm can bring its games to the Asian country.
During the interview with the FT, Hanke announced that after a recent funding round, the company had raised $200 million from investors; that’s on top of the money it raked in from Pokémon Go. Hanke confirmed what most suspected, that player numbers have sharply dropped since the game's initial launch, but that there was still a “solid” core of players who have stuck around.
Niantic is set to launch a Harry Potter game similar to Pokémon Go sometime in 2018; the company will no doubt be expecting it to be a massive hit just like Pokémon Go when it was released in 2016.
Source: BBC News
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