KUALA LUMPUR: First, the good news: After establishing their presence in Europe, Nintendo and Niantic is finally shifting their focus to the East, officially bringing Pokemon Go to Asia.
Word broke out after netizens were made aware of the news that Japan was finally getting the game, combined with the listing of dedicated Pokemon Go servers for numerous Asian countries on MMO Server Status (http://www.mmoserverstatus.com/pokemon_go). On top of Hong Kong, Japan and India, this includes the Southeast Asia region.
And now the bad news: Unlike neighbours Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia which gets a mention, Malaysia is nowhere on that list.
This has led to numerous speculation that Malaysians may potentially be sharing servers with Singapore, although there has been no official confirmation on the matter.
Additionally, there has been no official word when the servers will go publicly live, if and when the game is officially launched in the region, and if Malaysia will eventually get its own server.
So keep your fingers crossed.
The world has been abuzz with the game ever since its official launch in New Zealand, Australia, the US and Germany on Android and iOS on July 6. It has made headlines, being more active in use than the likes of Facebook, Tinder, Twitter and Snapchat, and the game itself has propelled Nintendo to beat out rival Sony in market value at 4.5 trillion yen - 400 billion yen (RM15 billion) more than Sony's current value.
The game has also since officially made its way to Canada and all across Europe. Many of those outside the mentioned countries have opted to resort to unofficial means to access the game to join in the craze though no one can guarantee of any repercussions.
The addition of soon-to-go live servers that includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Turkey and Asia brings up the server count to 47 worldwide.