Niantic Responds to Pokémon GO Backlash Over Mapping Sites and Glitch Making it Harder to Catch Pokémon

By Kyle McKenney | August 5, 2016 | 9:43am

Image via Nintendo

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Pokémon GO’s developer Nianitc has responded to two big complaints of Pokémon GO fans. Recently, Niantic worked to prevent Pokémon GO mapping tools, such as PokéRadar, from accessing their servers and data. This move angered fans, as it took away any ability to know where Pokémon might be. However, these sites were a huge strain in Niantic’s resources and servers, so much so that they had to delay expanding Pokémon GO’s release in other countries.

“As some of you may have noticed we recently rolled out Pokémon GO to Latin America including Brazil […] We were delayed in doing that due to aggressive efforts by third parties to access our servers outside of the Pokémon GO game client and our terms of service.” Niantic wrote in a post on their site.

“These seemingly innocuous sites and apps actually hurt our ability to deliver the game to new and existing players,” they continued.

Niantic also acknowledge the issue people have with the Nearby feature, which they recently removed footsteps from. “We have heard feedback about the Nearby feature in the game and are actively working on it,” Niantic wrote.

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Lastly, on Pokémon GO’s Twitter account, Niantic shared that they are aware of the glitch that is making it harder to catch Pokémon and are working on a fix.

Trainers, a new bug affecting throw accuracy increases the odds of escape and omits the XP bonus. We are working on a fix, stay tuned…

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) August 4, 2016

Niantic has been tight-lipped about many of Pokémon GO’s problems and their decisions, so it’s nice to see them finally opening up lines of communication regarding fans’ complaints. However, they might have done so earlier. Fan anger over Niantic’s lack of communication, the shutting down of mapping sites and the removal of footsteps led to an orchestrated effort to flood Pokémon GO’s app page with 1-star reviews. Despite it’s massive popularity, Pokémon GO currently sits at a 2-star rating on the iOS App Store.

Fan actions aren’t always negative, though. Many have continued loving Pokémon GO, barely even aware of these complaints. A fan community has sprung up on Tumblr and has created an incredible amount of fan art celebrating Pokémon GO and the team leaders. We collected some of the best Pokémon GO fan art in a gallery here.