Pokémon Go in Japan

I am in Japan and have enjoyed being away from the craze of Pokémon Go as it is not yet here. I have seen one or two newspaper articles and CNN clips about how insane things are getting with the game back in the US. I understand that the relative quiet without the game in its homeland is about to be disturbed. Yesterday's international edition of the Wall Street Journal had an article about how McDonald's is partnering with the game developers to have virtual characters located at their restaurants here in Japan.

I wondered how long it would take before businesses decided to cash in on the success of the game. I figured that if you had a virtual character standing out in front of your store, people would come and visit your establishment as a course of playing Pokémon Go. One of my coworkers told me this might be a bad idea because game players would visit your store but not necessarily purchase anything. Real customers would then see the crowd and avoid coming in. I guess McDonalds doesn't feel that way. At least not here in Japan.