It all comes down to Google’s services once again

Jul 8, 2016 09:16 GMT  ·  By

There’s a petition making the rounds out there that calls for Niantic to bring Pokemon GO on Windows phones, after the game was released on Android and iOS recently.

And while launching Pokemon GO on Windows 10 Mobile would be really good news for both users and the platform itself, as it could help fight criticism and stay close to Android and iOS in terms of app offering, there is something that makes the whole thing extremely difficult and that dramatically reduces the chances to see this happening.

As reddit user luxtabula has sharply noticed, Pokemon GO’s back-end is based entirely on Google Maps services, and with Google showing absolutely no interest in Microsoft’s mobile platform, you can easily see where this one goes.

Switching to Microsoft Maps

The easiest way to bring Pokemon GO on Windows phones would be to turn to Microsoft’s bridges and port the iOS version to the platform (Project Astoria is already dead, so the Android version is out of discussion for the moment). But doing this involves work that Niantic is very unlikely to agree with, given the costs and the rather small market share of Windows Phone that seems to be convincing so many developers to jump ship these days.

A possible workaround would be to replace Google Maps with Microsoft Apps, but this would obviously be a nightmare, and not only would it involve a lot of work to cover all locations and gyms, but it would also take a lot of time. And this means that bringing Pokemon GO on Windows Phone cannot happen overnight, even if the company agrees to do it.

And yet, the hype around this game shows that a Windows Phone version is indeed really needed, especially if Niantic doesn’t want to leave anyone behind. But given these technical difficulties that the company might experience for such a project, don’t get your hopes too high on a Windows Phone version of Pokemon GO. At least, not too soon.