Sprint and Niantic enter exclusive deal for Pokemon Go

Impacts over 10,000 stores

Today on a conference call with Marcelo Claure, President and CEO, Sprint and John Hanke, Founder and CEO, Niantic, Destructoid learned that that as of December 12, Sprint stores will become special sponsored PokeStops and Gyms for Pokemon Go.

Sprint will pay Niantic upfront for the partnership, and although the terms weren’t disclosed, it is an exclusive deal. It will apply to roughly 10,500 stores, including Boost and RadioShack (ha) locations. Players will be able to “charge their devices for free” at these locations.

So uh, it’s not all that exciting, unless you happen to have a lot of Sprint stores in your rural town and no other stops, but the pair did hint at what’s to come for the game. After being asked about the “next generation” of Go, Hanke noted that although they weren’t giving specifics, new Pokemon would be added to the game on December 12. The developer is not talking about trading or battling at this time.

It seems odd that after all this time we still don’t have basic features like trading in, and we’re already moving onto a new generation, but that strategy is par for the course for Pokemon Go.