Niantic boss praises Pokemon Go McDonald’s sponsorship deal for taking the focus away from microtransactions
The chief executive of the gaming giant behind Pokemon Go, Niantic has praised the title’s sponsorship deal with McDonald’s in Japan, saying that it takes pressure off the company to rely solely on in-app purchases.
Niantic's chief executive has touted Pokemon Go's sponsorship model
The fast-food chain inked a partnership with the wildly popular game in July, turning restaurants around Japan into key locations for players to collect Pokemon and other supplies within the augmented reality game.
Commenting on the deal, Niantic boss John Hanke told Forbes: "My belief is that the sponsored-location model is a better business model for games, it will provide a compliment to in-app purchase.”
He continued: “The idea with real world games was to build an advertising model that is deeply tied to the way the game itself works… so it doesn’t break the flow of the game. It doesn’t feel like something is grafted on.
“That’s what we’re trying to do and it will provide a compliment to in-app purchase. In app-purchase will be the majority of the revenue, but it does take some of the pressure off of us to squeeze hard on the purchase side which would be detrimental to the game."
Google housed Niantic before the company spun out on its own last year with the formation of the internet giant's new holding company Alphabet.