Pokemon Go was finally released in Brazil earlier today, the site of the Summer Olympics that are about to begin, which means we are bound to get plenty of Olympic related Pokemon Go stories in the next few weeks. However, they are starting off early with an athlete that actually had the game prior to coming to the country.
Kohei Uchimara is a 5-time Olympic medalist, including winning the gold in the all-around gymnastics competition in the 2012 London Olympics, while also being a 19-time World medalist. Many have considered him one of the greatest gymnasts in history, but that didn’t stop him from getting into a little trouble thanks to Pokemon Go.
According to Kyodo News, Uchimara revealed that he racked up a phone bill of about 500,00 yen, or about $5,000 as a result of Pokemon Go. Many of the costly stories surrounding Pokemon Go involve the purchase of microtransactions, but Uchimara’s downfall was something else.
Uchimara said that he downloaded Pokemon Go as soon as he arrived in San Paulo, Brazil for pre-Olympic training and quickly became addicted. However, the problem arose due to that fact that he did not have unlimited roaming overseas data, which he quickly amassed while playing.
This story has a happy ending for Uchimara though, as his phone company agreed to lower his bill dramatically to only 3,000 yen, or about $30, after he explained the situation, after which he said “he really lucked out.” Let this be a lesson to you if you are going overseas, be careful with your Pokemon Go data usage or you may rack up a similar bill without even knowing it.
