Pokémon Go isn’t a global phenomenon just yet as the game has only been available in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. But the game is preparing for its European launch. Pokémon Go is now available in Germany on the iPhone and Android — other European countries should follow soon.
The game isn’t geo-blocked per se. You can download the app from the App Store from anywhere as long as you have a U.S. account for example. Today’s launch simply means that German customers with a German App Store or Play Store accounts will be able to find Pokémon Go (App Store link and Play Store link).
Right after launching the game in the U.S., the company behind Pokémon Go Niantic Labs announced that the European launch had been delayed due to server issues.
And it’s true that Pokémon Go has had its fair share of downtime. The game regularly becomes unresponsive because there are simply too many people playing it. I’ve been playing the game with a Pokémon Trainer Club account and I got logged out constantly before the 1.0.1 update. After the update, I simply wasn’t able to log in at all for a few hours. Now it’s working again.
Similarly, Pokémon Go incorrectly requested full access to your Gmail and Google account before yesterday’s update. Now that Niantic Labs fixed these issues, the company can start rolling out the game in new markets again.
Given that the game is only available in Germany for now, it looks like the company wants to make sure that the servers can hold the charge before launching all European countries at once. But you can certainly expect other European launches over the coming days. Up next: Asia.