'Pokémon Go' is officially launching in India tomorrow

Indians can finally join the rest of the world in chasing Pokémons with their smartphones.

Sleeper hit title Pokémon Go is finally coming to India, Reliance Jio announced today. The 4G LTE-only carrier has partnered with Niantic, publisher and developer of Pokémon GO. The game will be available to download in the country starting Wednesday.

The partnership between the two companies means that thousands of Reliance Digital Stores and select other partner premises will turn into 'PokèStops' or 'Gyms', places where you’re likely to find most Pokèmon characters.

Users will find exclusive Pokèmon Go Channel in Reliance Jio’s social messaging app, JioChat. This will enabled them to socialize with other players and level-up faster, Reliance Jio said.

"We are delighted to partner with Jio to launch Pokémon GO in India,” said John Hanke, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Niantic in a press statement.

"It’s exciting to see Pokémon fans in India step out and explore their neighbourhoods in search of Pokémon and Jio’s disruptive high speed 4G LTE Network will be an excellent way to experience the game,” he added. Reliance Jio's offering is also exciting as it is offering a bulk of 4G LTE data to more than 50 million subscribers for free.

First unveiled in July this year, Pokémon Go has become a global sensation with over 500 million downloads. The game disrupted lives of many, pushing some to exercise more, or to go out more often. However, at the same time, so much was its craze that many people put their and others’ lives to risk in their quest of catching virtual monsters.

Though Pokémon Go wasn’t officially launched in India, many people had force-installed the game and sightings of people running looking at phones in public places became a common thing in India too.

So much so, that a Gujarat-based resident went to the court alleging that the augmented-reality game was hurting the sentiment of people by showing eggs in religious places such as temples.