Pokémon boss says that Pokémon Go could be heading to China and South Korea

Pokémon Go is trying to get into some key Asian territories.

The Pokémon Company president and chief executive officer Tsunekazu Ishihara said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he hopes to bring the location-based mobile game to China and South Korea, via Gamesindustry.biz. Pokémon Go is the top-grossing game in the $36.6 billion mobile gaming industry, and it set a record as the fastest smartphone game ever to hit $500 million in revenue. Market researcher Niko Partners predicts the Chinese domestic mobile game market to reach $8.3 billion in 2017, so introducing Pokémon Go in that area could make it even more successful.

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However, Google Maps works differently in those territories, which makes bringing the GPS-dependent game to those countries difficult. But considering how much money localizing Pokémon Go for those markets could bring, developer Niantic is likely working hard to find a way to make it work.

Ishihara also noted that Pokémon games will come out for the NX, Nintendo’s next system. We don’t know much about the NX, other than that it will release in March. Pokémon games have come out for every major Nintendo system since the franchise debuted in 1996 on the Game Boy, so hearing that we’ll see pocket monsters on the NX isn’t a surprise.