As Nintendo officially motivated today’s youth to go outside in look for virtual creatures with its innovative Pokemon GO app. Individuals from all ages are taking the streets in search for Pokemon, most walk in hordes around specific locations in the game called PokeStops. These such locations are scattered around the city and range from small neighborhood icons . . . to main city icons. Pokemon GO players collect valuable virtual items at arrival to these PokeStops, items range from potions to pokeballs and eggs that are used for various reasons in the game.
PokeStops in central park have particularly gotten a lot of attention in the news lately due to sudden hordes of players that have taken over city landmarks such as the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument in the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street. As hundreds of players gather around the three PokeStops at the Sherman Monument, police were baffled at the presence of such a huge crowd that managed to stay stationary throughout the whole day and way passed midnight.
As of the launch of the game Pokemon GO, Nintendo stocks have dramatically risen over the past few days upon its release.
Pokemon GO has in addition collaborated with various companies such as McDonald's according to Gizmodo.com.
“Gizmodo has learned that, as part of the sponsorship, every McDonald’s restaurant in this country will either be a PokéStop or a gym.”
“Several Redditors discovered decompiled code in the Android and iOS versions of Pokémon Go earlier this week that indicated a potential sponsorship deal with global burger chain McDonald’s. Now a well-placed source has confirmed with Gizmodo that the sponsorship is moving forward” - Gizmodo.com
T-Mobile in the order hand has exempted data use on the Pokemon GO app according to T-Mobile Newsroom, this is in order to promote the app and with its popularity promote its own T-Mobile Tuesday app .
“T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) today announced that, with next week’s T-Mobile Tuesday, the Un-carrier is thanking its customers with free, unlimited data for Pokémon Go”
“On July 19th, as part of next week’s T-Mobile Tuesdays, the Un-carrier will give customers great ways to take their Pokémon Go skillz to a whole new level, including … “
Free, unlimited data on Pokémon Go, so it won’t touch your high-speed data—for a full year!
Free Lyft rides up to $15 to get to a new PokéStop or Gym
Free Wendy’s Frosty to fuel up for your hunting trip
50% off select accessories – including portable power packs and chargers at T-Mobile stores – so you can keep on playing for hours
“On top of that, 250 people will each win $100 in PokéCoins, and five people will win a Pokémon Go hunting trip anywhere in the U.S. for themselves and a guest!” - T-Mobile Newsroom
As the app progresses to change the way people play virtual reality games, opportunities arise with the app’s potential method of advertising a specific location by marking it with PokeStops or Pokemon Gyms. The feature carries the potential to draw hundreds or even thousands of people to a marked location, therefore promoting such location could benefit both the marked location and Niantic (the company behind the development of Pokemon GO). This set of features would surely prompt locations specifically targeted to Pokemon Go and its players.