Pokemon Go down: Japan launch appears to stop game working entirely

Developers had been holding off from launching the game internationally to try and stop servers from falling over – but it doesn’t seem to have worked

(Getty)

The launch of Pokemon Go in Japan appears to have broken the game around the world.

Many players are unable to get online at all, wherever they are. Others are finding that they can login but certain parts of the game are either slow or don’t work at all.

It isn’t clear that the issues are definitely related to the launch of Pokemon Go in Japan. But they come on the same morning, and the game has broken at times of intense demand in the past.

There appears to be no way around the problems, which often prevent people from getting through the screen that usually logs them in. Repeatedly trying – after shutting down the app and opening it again – does seem sometimes to yield results, though not always.

Developers Niantic had been holding off on releasing Pokemon Go internationally because of the huge demand that interest was placing on its servers. But even with that limitation, the game appears to have broken.

The slow rollout meant that Pokemon Go only arrived in its home country a couple of weeks after it was first made available in Australia and New Zealand. Many had hoped that the launch meant that Niantic had made sure that the game could cope with the expected huge interest from Japan – but that doesn’t seem to be the case.