Niantic says advertisers will soon be able to buy Pokémon Go ‘sponsored locations’

There are already various examples of small businesses taking advantage of Pokémon Go’s Pokéstop and “Lure” system to attract Pokémon Go players to their shops, but it looks like Nintendo and Niantic have plans to launch an official advertiser program for the game.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Niantic chief executive John Hanke said his company plans to add “sponsored locations” to Pokémon Go, allowing businesses to sign up on a “cost per visit basis.” Hanks described a system where companies would pay Niantic to have their store placed on Pokémon Go’s virtual game board in an effort to drive more foot traffic to the location.

Many U.S. stores, and even a few Canadian retailers despite the fact that the game hasn’t launched in Canada yet, are taking advantage of Pokémon Go’s “Lure” system to attract visitors, with some businesses also highlighting the fact that rare Pocket Monsters often appear near their store to attract customers.

Ingress, Niantic’s other major augmented reality title, also featured promoted in-game locations from brands like Tokyo, Mitsubishi, UFJ, and Zipcar.

Niantic also reportedly has plans to add more features to Pokémon Go, including trading, a mainstay of the series since its inception, and more stable servers, according to a recent interview with Hanke in Gameinformer.

Players frequently run into slow-down issues and glitches in the current build of Pokémon Go on both iOS and Android, though Niantic has already released two updates to the iOS version of the game.

[source]The Financial Times[/source]