With Pokémon Go being the juggernaut that it is, is it any wonder that Niantic might want to cash in on its success? Well, Niantic is going to do what they did with Ingress, and the company is looking at implementing “sponsored locations.”
As the name implies, brands would pay Niantic to have their locations featured in the game. In the case of Pokémon Go, these locations would turn into either Pokéstops or Gyms, which would drive foot traffic to said location. Niantic CEO John Hanke has said that these “sponsored locations” would provide an alternative revenue stream in addition to in-app purchases of power-ups and virtual items.
Interestingly, it seems that Niantic may have already decided upon the first company it would work with for the “sponsored location” deal. In a post by Gizmodo, it appears that Reddits have decompiled the Android version of Pokémon Go and discovered that there are strings of code that mentions McDonalds. So if this turns out to be true, it seems that McDonald’s will be swarmed with aspiring Pokémon masters whenever this “sponsored locations” system goes live.
Source: TechCrunch, Gizmodo
