Pokémon GO Rolled Out In 15 Asian, Oceanic Countries After Third-Party Trackers Blocked

As Pokémon GO app is being rolled out in phases across the world, enthusiastic players in countries yet to be part of the official launch found workarounds to download it and play the game. And after blocking third-party trackers earlier in the week, the company brought its game to 15 new countries in Asia and Oceania on Saturday.

The rollout was announced on the game’s Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as on the website of Nianctic Labs, the company that made the actual game. The newly included countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.

According to Niantic, some of the recent delays in the rollout — such as to Latin America, and possibly to the newly listed countries as well — of the game were linked to the reason why it blocked third-party websites and apps that made it easier for users to track and catch Pokémon.

The game maker said “these seemingly innocuous sites and apps actually hurt our ability to deliver the game to new and existing players” by consuming a large quantity of server resources. It also said that other than “hampering our ability to bring Pokémon GO to new markets… some of the tools used to access servers to scrape data have also served as platforms for bots and cheating which negatively impact all Trainers.”

The website added that based on feedback from users, Niantic was “actively working” on the Nearby feature in the game which was taken off completely after it developed a bug.