Pokémon Go has been raking in the dough for Niantic to the tune of $14 million (that we know about so far), and Niantic CEO John Hanke in the New York Times has revealed that the game will soon bring sponsored PokéStops to add to that massive revenue stream.
Some examples of these sponsored PokéStops include fast food restaurants and coffee shops, which comes to no surprise since some chains like McDonald's and Starbucks are ubiquitous throughout America and many parts of the world.
In fact, according to a report from Gizmodo, a decompiled Android version of Pokémon Go reveals a string with the following characters: "Sponsor.MCDONALDDS.POKEMON_STORE." This suggests that the sponsorship may already exist; it just hasn't been revealed yet. This sponsorship might even turn McDonald's into not just PokéStops but full-on Pokemon Gyms.
As much as I'm not particularly fond of fast food chains, and I'm more in favor of local businesses and restaurants being transformed into PokéStops, this alledged McDonald's sponsorship would certainly cast a wider net of customers and bring considerable interest and food traffic to McDonald's everywhere.
Further analysis of the game data has also unveiled the workings of a trading system, more berry types, and legendary monsters. These are probably just underlying code, a basic framework that will allow Niantic to build upon later with future updates.
For more information on Pokémon Go, you can check out our beginner's guide, advanced guide, and other Pokémon GO FAQs.
