The popular Pokemon Go app continues to generate multiple newsworthy items, so we decided to put the most recent items all in one place for your enjoyment(?)
Pokemon Go Drives Foot Traffic to Businesses
While there have been reported downsides to the new augmented reality game – such as the discovery of a dead body, and reports that bad guys were luring players to various locations and then robbing them – businesses report a happy upside, as it appears the game is driving business to local restaurants and bars.
https://twitter.com/Iyagovos/status/751467320946589696
According to a new report from Bloomberg, businesses have seen an increase in foot traffic since the game, particularly savvy business owners like this bar manager:
Food and drink sales spiked by about 30 percent compared to a typical weekend, according to [L’Inizio’s Pizzar Bar] manager Sean Benedetti. It was part luck—the game chooses which public locations to imbue with special significance in its virtual world—but there was also savvy strategy. Benedetti, 29, spent about $10 on “Lure Modules,” an in-game purchase that attracts Pokémon to a specified location. Players soon picked up on the fact that L’inizio’s was well worth visiting. “People are coming out of the woodwork because of this game,” he said.
Apple Makes More Money from the Game Than Nintendo Does
Another Bloomberg report indicates Apple likely makes more money off the free game’s in-app purchases than does Nintendo. The game already has more active users than Snapchat or WhatsApp, and the game’s players are not shy when it comes to buying in-app purchases.
While that is good news for Nintendo, as the game is expected to boost the company’s net profits by as much as 15%, there may be some question as to how much the company will actually earn from the game, says Macquarie Capital Securities Analyst David Gibson.
“We presume that out of every 100 units earned at the App Store, 30 would go to Apple, 30 to [software developer] Niantic, 30 to Pokemon and 10 to Nintendo,” writes Gibson. “Hence, we don’t think Nintendo will earn much directly from the game. However, Nintendo will earn income from its equity-accounted income of owning 33 percent of Pokemon Company.”
Pokemon Go Game Gets Full Access to Player’s Google Accounts, But a Fix is on the Way
On Monday it was discovered that players who had signed into the game via their Google account had by default given the game, and its developer Niantic, full access to their Google account. This included access to their email, Google Drive documents, Google Maps navigation history, search history, and personal photos stored on Google Photos.
Following the report, the game’s developer released the following statement to The Verge saying the company did not intend to request full Google account access and will soon issue a to reduce the number of permissions.
“We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.”
Pokemon Go Plus Wearable Accessory’s Resell Price Rises to Around $250
Pokemon Go’s popularity has led to a shortage of the game’s accompanying wearable wristband accessory in stores. That, of course, has led to a rise in resell prices online.
As discovered by IGN, the wearable is still available on the reseller auction site eBay, but the average price is hitting somewhere between $100 and $250 for the official first-party version, and not a copy cat.
The cheapest guaranteed pre-order price son eBay come in at around $140, while some auctions are nearing $200. A few Buy it Now sales are in that range, while others are coming in at around $250.
