Yesterday the Pokémon Company and Niantic Labs released the much awaited augmented reality game, Pokémon Go, and the internet went wild. While the release went live only for some countries including Australia, folks could still access the game via sideloading the APK, thus fulfilling their childhood dream of catching a Magikarp in Manila Bay. Or not.

Unfortunately, things have taken a terrible, terrible turn, at least for people who want to keep catching virtual fantasy animals and battling them Micheal Vick style – Pokémon Go access has seemingly been blocked in the PH. You can still sideload the app and it’ll still run, but you won’t see any Pokémon to catch or shops – just a desolate wasteland of shattered childhood dreams. It seems like Niantic has noticed a sudden influx of users not coming from the official release markets and have blocked access, so you won’t be able to cruise through EDSA and poke your phone out to capture an errant Pikachu.

Here’s to hoping Niantic opens up access to SEA and PH soon – there’s a lot of sad trainers today.

[UPDATE] We may have spoken too soon – some users are reporting they’re able to access and catch Pokémon in the PH, and the issue may just be because of thousands of people hammering Niantic’s servers as the game picks up. That means there’s still a chance that Pokémon Go is usable, though to be fair it’s not supposed to launch in our market just yet. For us, the game still isn’t loading anything whatever we do – what’s your experience? Is Pokémon Go still working for you? Let us know in the comments below.

Source