‘Pokémon GO’ Now Officially Available In Canada, Server Issues Immediately Ensue [Updated]

Pokémon GO is now officially officially available in Canada, according to a post from CTV News. The record-breakingly-popular game has been available in America since July 6, but Canadians and other aspiring Pokémon trainers across the world, including in Great Britain and Europe, have had to wait a little longer as developer Niantic Labs scrambled to deal with an overwhelming response that hammered their servers into oblivion.

And while illegitimate copies of Pokémon GO have been availableonline since then for international users (along with the risks of downloading illegitimate software,) as previously covered by the Inquisitr, Sunday, July 17 marks the first day that the massively-popular game will officially be available for Canadians to play — although many new players may have an uphill battle against those who have already been playing for several weeks.

That having been said, expect to see a flood of Pokémon GO players on Canada’s streets today — in fact, it’s worth cautioning drivers to take extra care today as new Pokémon GO players on foot and in cars may not be paying strict attention to where they’re going (please don’t Pokémon and drive, ok?)

Of course, not all Canadian Pokémon GO players may be quite so enthusiastic when they receive their next phone bill. Canada, unfortunately, has some of the worst mobile data plans of any developed nation, and Pokémon GO burns through it fast — a few hours of play are enough to eat over 100MB of data, and that’s a significant percentage to many Canadians. That said, Pokémon GO burns through phone battery charge even faster. If you’re looking to spot some dedicated Pokémon trainers today, watch for people using backup batteries.

In the meantime, for players who are looking to get a head start on their Pokémon journey, the servers for Niantic’s other Augmented Reality (AR) game, Ingress,are still ticking along fine — the maps in Pokémon GOare based heavily on the maps and control points in Ingress, and prospective Pokémon GOplayers may want to take the opportunity to familiarize themselves with where they’re likely to find PokeStops in their area.

Unfortunately for Niantic, the server problems currently being experienced in Pokémon GO aren’t limited to new Canadian players. As CBC is reporting, the American Pokémon GO servers are down for the count as well, and people are, to put it mildly, starting to get a wee bit upset.

Niantic & Nintendo staff are currently working on the #PokemonGO server situation… pic.twitter.com/5NWXoNWzRo

— Myles Dyer (@MylesDyer) July 17, 2016

Of course, it’s hard to say how much of this Niantic is actually to blame for. While they’ve seen general success with Ingress — which started when they were a spin-off of Google, who could afford to throw money at any problem until it went away — they’re no longer affiliated with Google and they’re still a small company. Meanwhile, as the Inquisitr has previously reported, Nintendo’s distaste and disdain for smartphone gaming is well-known. And while neither company is being forward about what the problems with the servers actually are (Nintendo has actually made some effort to distance themselves from Pokémon GO, even as their stock price skyrockets in its wake,) it’s entirely possible that they simply refuse to commit money and resources to the problem. This would, unfortunately, mean more or less mean leaving the issues with one of the world’s most popular games right now in the hands of what is essentially a small start-up.

So. Here’s hoping that Niantic does get the servers up and running soon. Meanwhile, Pokémon GO is available for download in Canada in the official Android and iOS app stores.