Sprint to partner with Pokemon Go developer

(Reuters) - Sprint Corp said on Wednesday it would partner with the developer of Pokemon Go, Niantic Inc, in a bid to pull fans of the wildly popular location-based game into more than 10,500 of its stores in the United States.

Pokemon Go players can go to Sprint, Boost and Sprint at RadioShack locations to recharge phones, get data plans, collect in-game items, including Poke balls and eggs, and battle with their favorite characters.

The blockbuster game developed by Niantic, in which Japan's Nintendo Co has a large stake, uses augmented reality and GPS mapping to make animated characters appear in the real world. Players see creatures overlaid on the nearby landscape that they see through a mobile phone camera.

Sprint's shares were up nearly 3 percent at $8.41 in early trading.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto)

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