Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, the Pokémon Go craze is everywhere. With the official release of the game in Canada, the popularity is only expected to get even bigger.
And that has Burnaby’s biggest shopping centre happily bracing for even more traffic from people playing the game.
Since the game was released more than week ago, Metropolis at Metrotown has become one of the most popular places around Metro Vancouver for people to gather and play.
Judy Black, the mall’s marketing director, said now that the game is available in Canada, the shopping centre expects even more people to come and play the game there.
“We’re happy to see people having fun,” she told theNOW.
While the mall isn’t discouraging people from coming to the location and play, Black said it does want them to do so safely.
She said the mall wants to make sure people are watching where they walk, being careful in parking lots and staying in the designated public areas.
And of course, being courteous to people.
“Some people are pretty keen to play, now that it’s just new in Canada, so just remember you’re in the real world while you’re doing it,” Black said, noting the mall hasn’t received any complaints from store owners.
For those who don’t know, Pokémon Go is a game you can download on your smartphone where players travel around searching and catching virtual Pokémon at various real-life landmarks. The game is based on the popular television and game from the mid-90s.
It’s not clear exactly how Metropolis at Metrotown became a hot spot for the game, but Black noted in other geocaching games the mall has been submitted by users as a location.
Other popular locations for the game in Burnaby include BCIT and Simon Fraser University.
But Pokémon Go hasn’t been all fun and games.
Local police departments in Metro Vancouver have been warning people to be careful when playing the game since it was released more than a week ago.
On Monday, Delta police announced a 31 year-old New Westminster man was arrested for sexually assaulting a teenager at a park in the city.
According to media reports, the pair met online and arranged to meet each other to play the game in the park.
