McDonald’s Unit to Sponsor ‘Pokémon Go’ in Japan

McDonald’s Holdings Co. will participate in the introduction of the hit game “Pokémon Go” in Japan and will make its restaurants key locations for players, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The deal could be announced as soon as Wednesday, along with the introduction of the game for players in Japan, these people said.

It would be the first business tie-up for “Pokémon Go,” an augmented-reality game in which players use smartphones to search for virtual creatures layered over images of the real world.

Pokémon Co. and Niantic Inc., the creators of the game, declined to comment, while a representative of McDonald’s Holdings wasn’t immediately available for comment. McDonald’s Holdings is the Japan unit of McDonald’s Corp. of the U.S.

“Pokémon Go” is free to download, and the publishers earn revenue through in-app purchases, such as “incense” to lure the child-friendly Pokémon characters. Niantic has said the company would seek sponsorship deals for the game as additional sources of revenue, and Niantic’s chief, John Hanke, said over the weekend in Tokyo that the game would be available “real soon” in Japan.

Niantic, a San Francisco-based startup spun out of Alphabet Inc.’s Google last year, has already struck similar partnerships in Japan with major companies including McDonald’s, SoftBank Group Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. for an earlier game it produced called “Ingress.”

The “Pokémon Go” tie-up with McDonald’s in Japan was earlier reported by media including TechCrunch. Shares in the fast-food chain’s Japanese unit, which are traded in Tokyo, rose 5.3% on Tuesday, while those of Nintendo Co., which owns a minority stake in Pokémon Co., rose 14%.

“Pokémon Go” was first introduced two weeks ago and is now available in many countries including the U.S., Canada and many European nations. The tardiness of the game’s arrival in Japan, birthplace of the Pokémon characters, has irked some Japanese fans.

Source: wsj.com