Pokemon Go gets Hindi support amid big India push

India is among the top markets in terms of app downloads for Pokemon Go that has surpassed over a billion downloads until now.

Pokemon Go, the popular augmented reality-based mobile game developed by Niantic in collaboration with The Pokemon Company, is adding support for Hindi language, as the game looks to make deeper inroads into the country.

"The Hindi version of Pokémon GO will promote inclusivity, encourage engagement, and enable more players to embark on their Pokémon GO adventures. We are certain that this step by us with The Pokémon Company will further help us in widening our audience base in the country." said Omar Tellez, VP for Emerging Markets, Niantic.

Hindi is the sixth Asian language and the 15th language across the world in which the game has been localised. This includes English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Korean, French, German and Russian among others.

Pokemon Go was first launched in July 2016 and became available to users in India in December 2016. In the location-based mobile game, players need to travel to different real-world locations to catch, train, and battle virtual creatures called Pokémon. Pokémon now has over 1,000 creatures, a far cry from the 151 creatures it started with.

India is among the top markets in terms of app downloads for the game that has surpassed over a billion downloads until now.

Tellez told Moneycontrol that they have added over five lakh Pokéstops across India since the game's inception, marking the largest such addition across the world. Pokéstops are real-world places of interest wherein players can go and collect gameplay items.

These places could be monuments, historical places, museums, art installations, and other prominent places, with an intention to inspire people to explore and get to know their city and other cities better. The company also has been organising several on-ground activations, he said.

To commemorate this launch, Niantic said that it is also hosting a month-long special in-game event for Indian players that comprises a special set of research quests such as Field Research, Timed Research and Bonuses with special rewards.

These research quests may include objectives such as catching a certain type of Pokémon, walking a certain distance with their Buddy Pokémon, or winning battles against other players and other such challenges.

Renaming Pokemon in Hindi was a key part of localizing the game for the country. As part of this launch, The Pokemon Company has renamed over 800 Pokemon in Hindi, in a bid to make them more relatable for the Indian fans.

"India is one of our key markets. We believe the localization into Hindi marks the starting point of a long journey to come. We aim to firmly establish ourselves in India with our long-term vision and hope to further enrich the Pokémon world hand-in-hand with the Pokémon fan community" said Takato Utsunomiya, Chief Operating Officer, The Pokémon Company.

Tellez said that they worked with The Pokemon Company for over nine months over these renaming efforts.

"The Pokemon Company protects its IP enormously, and they want to make sure that the names of the monsters and their moves are the right names," he said.

"There is a translation localisation element, and there's also a technical element, which is ensuring that Hindi is well represented in different smartphones. India has a wide variety of Android devices, from the lowest end to the highest top end. So, you have to make sure that those scripts are sort of represented well," Tellez added.

Niantic is also investing in building a local team to grow its presence in the country in a bid to capitalise on the country's rising importance in the global mobile gaming market. The company currently has about 13 people across marketing and business development spread across New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.