I play in the UK, which apparently excludes me from getting Farfetch'd, Tauros and Kangaskhan. Other parts of the world apparently can't get Mr. Mime? Do we know why they did this? Do we think they'll change it anytime soon? I mean I do want to see more of Asia, but not just to find Pokémon :-)
The main series games have always come in pairs with the main difference being just a dozen or so pokemon exclusive to each version forcing you to trade with your friends to complete you pokedex.
I think PoGo region exclusives are a nod to that, but instead of trading it is encouraging intercontinental travel.
I understand the reasoning behind game-specific mon to increase sales through trading. I have never played any of the other games, but I understand that Sun and Moon, for example, each have specific mon. That's to encourage one friend/household member to buy Sun and another to buy Moon. And I understand that the region-specifics in PoGo are a nod to that. But it's just stupid in this context.
As someone said in a lower comment, all it does is reward cheating. Those of us who never cheat will never get those outside our region. Even if I do happen to schedule a trip to, say, Asia, I'm most likely not going to incur the expense of international data charges or getting a temporary SIM. So I'd have to be super lucky and catch one while on a public wi-fi. Again, it's just stupid.
Different people play for different reasons. There really isn't as much opportunity for PoGo to cater towards the hyper-rich whales that often play mobile games. E.g. in Clash of Clans you could spend real money to instantly get resources and instantly finish building something that should have taken 14+ days to complete. In PoGo you can buy 8 incubators to hatch eggs 800% more quickly, but that's about it. There's a huge difference between instant and +800% (the whales in PoGo actually still have to put in their hours and KM). There's also a huge luck aspect of finding strong pokemon, so non-whales can compete with the Whales pretty easily here.
Thus, what is there to keep a whale in the game? The only way is to offer them something that non-whales can't have. Whales are the type that will fly to another continent to get the other 3 region-specific pokemon and fully complete their Pokedex. They'll be able to show off 146 pokemon instead of 143 (or more now with the babies). Even if PoGo doesn't get the airfare, they get the continued spending of the whales who stick around because they have something that other players don't.
Regional exclusives won't keep "whales" in the game. They will simply get the few they are missing and then the motivation is gone. But regional exclusives will drive the collectors and "completists" (such as myself) out of the game. I love playing, but if they don't release the regionals to the general population, then I will eventually quit playing. Call it it compulsive, but I just can't deal with not having a way of reasonably completing the collection of Pokemon available for the game. Regional exclusives are unfair. They encourage cheating and violations of the TOS (i.e., letting someone in another region use your account). Why should cheaters be able to collect a full Pokedex, while those of us who play fairly can't? And some people even live in areas that have none of the regional exclusives accessible. This is just wrong. And it doesn't even make Niantic any money. If they would at least put them in eggs, they might gain profit-wise from incubator sales. This is win-win.
