Pokemon GO officially enters beta testing in Japan

Following the gameplay leak, Pokemon GO is officially entering field testing in Japan – which means we can look forward to getting a look at even more gameplay in the near future. Pokemon GO developer Niantic announced that the game would be going into beta testing in Japan at some point this month, but didn't offer any details on when.

According to Niantic's official Google+ profile page, the emails for the mobile game's beta have begun to be sent out, with plans on expanding the beta to more players in the future. Here's the post, courtesy of Google Translates horrible translation:

Starting today, if you live in Japan will begin an invitation to a field test of Pokémon GO. Users of the invitation on your terminal, on the basis of such as this to your experience with the realistic world game, and then sequentially guide you through methods such as lottery or invitation. To those who have been invited will tell the details by e-mail, but also those who did not receive an e-mail today, so we will sequentially number of users is expanding, please wait forward to.

Prior to the beta's beginning, Niantic revealed more information on the upcoming game detailing PokeStops and Gyms. PokeStops will be located in various 'interesting' places and will offer unique items like Pokemon Eggs that hatch after a specific number of steps. Pokemon Gyms will be made up by players claiming a territory who can be contests for that location.