SEOUL —
Nintendo Co’s smash hit Pokemon Go was unleashed on South Korea on Tuesday, six months after it was released elsewhere in the world, a delay caused by security fears over Google Maps.
The popularity of augmented-reality Pokemon Go around the world has generated crowds of people in parks and other public places as users search for monsters to train, but with temperatures well below freezing, there was no sudden, noticeable buzz on the streets of Seoul.
“We have waited very long and worked very hard to launch Pokemon Go in South Korea,” said Lim Jae Boem, chief executive of Pokemon Korea.
The game was jointly developed by Nintendo and Niantic Inc.
Pokemon Go relies on Google Maps to work. But in most of South Korea those functions have been limited by the government, which is technically still at war with North Korea, for national security reasons.
