Male
Indiana, U.S.
Seen September 20th, 2016
Posted September 11th, 2016
304 posts
6.9 Years
https://www.facebook.com/PokemonGO/posts/940141879465704

Full text also posted below:

Trainers,

As many of you know, we recently made some changes to Pokémon GO.

- We have removed the ‘3-step’ display in order to improve upon the underlying design. The original feature, although enjoyed by many, was also confusing and did not meet our underlying product goals. We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature.

- We have limited access by third-party services which were interfering with our ability to maintain quality of service for our users and to bring Pokémon GO to users around the world. The large number of users has made the roll-out of Pokémon GO around the world an... interesting… challenge. And we aren’t done yet! Yes, Brazil, we want to bring the game to you (and many other countries where it is not yet available).

We have read your posts and emails and we hear the frustration from folks in places where we haven’t launched yet, and from those of you who miss these features. We want you to know that we have been working crazy hours to keep the game running as we continue to launch globally. If you haven’t heard us Tweeting much it’s because we’ve been heads down working on the game. But we’ll do our best going forward to keep you posted on what’s going on.

Be safe, be nice to your fellow trainers, and keep on exploring.

The Pokémon GO team
In short: Niantic has publicly said they limited third party access (read: Pokevision, etc.) due to server strain. They have also revealed that they do plan to bring back an improved tracking system in-game.

=)
Fenrir---------------------Svetlana-------------------Blaine

Mmm, this IS a tasty burger!
Female
Seen November 17th, 2016
Posted September 21st, 2016
150 posts
6.8 Years
Good to see that they have lifted their noses from the grindstone of keeping the servers afloat long enough to give us some information. I hope that this will appease some of the folks who have really been condemning the lack of communication from Niantic, and hope it indicates that Niantic has come to realise just how much their userbase appreciates being kept 'in the loop'.

Nevertheless, there's no groundbreaking news here, only things we already knew (they're releasing to new countries) or suspected (they plan to update with a better tracking system, PokeVision and its ilk were causing server strain). Still nice to have them confirmed, I suppose.
Male
Indiana, U.S.
Seen September 20th, 2016
Posted September 11th, 2016
304 posts
6.9 Years
Good to see that they have lifted their noses from the grindstone of keeping the servers afloat long enough to give us some information. I hope that this will appease some of the folks who have really been condemning the lack of communication from Niantic, and hope it indicates that Niantic has come to realise just how much their userbase appreciates being kept 'in the loop'.

Nevertheless, there's no groundbreaking news here, only things we already knew (they're releasing to new countries) or suspected (they plan to update with a better tracking system, PokeVision and its ilk were causing server strain). Still nice to have them confirmed, I suppose.
A lot of people had been complaining that Niantic hadn't come out and said the bit about server strain with the third-party apps.

Also, the prevailing sense I had gotten from the community was that there was a lot of fear the tracking system was being scrapped entirely. I'll still be surprised if it comes back in its original form because I think that caused a lot of server strain, too, but it's great to get confirmation that they're working on an alternative.
Fenrir---------------------Svetlana-------------------Blaine

Mmm, this IS a tasty burger!
Male
Seen November 5th, 2016
Posted September 24th, 2016
338 posts
6.8 Years
I am very glad they came out and said something because it had got to the point where a statement was overdue, however all they really said looking to the future was "we will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature" which is about as vague as they could possibly phrase it which very much says that it won't come back as it was unless they miraculously find out how to reduce server strain or that they are still brainstorming other ideas for tracking and have no idea how long it will take.
There are many forces in this world.
Some are good, some are bad.
Some we can see and some we can't.
Some we know about and others we are yet to discover.
Don't let anyone tell you anything is impossible.
For there is no one in this world you can truly know for sure.

Squirrel

Age 28
Male
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted July 10th, 2021
9,551 posts
11.7 Years
Interesting! I'm glad they made this statement but it's a bit iffy to have this as our first big announcement given everything that's been happening recently. I'm especially irritated that they didn't give any reference to the new reduced catch rates or how the rural vs city split is so wildly out of balance right now. It's a start but that's all it is in my mind.
Male
Seen November 5th, 2016
Posted September 24th, 2016
338 posts
6.8 Years
I found this in the comments section about the niantic post and it really hits the nail on the head.


"That is like 80% PR bullmuk, 15% trying to pretend to be human and likable, and 5% useful information but not really.
So basically a typical marketing approved communication.
Also too busy to communicate via social media? Do they not have a community manager? Are they so desperate that they are getting them to program too? That’s the biggest pile of bullmuk right there."

I do think the step up for niantic between doing ingress and Pokemon Go is huge and you have to ask whether they really had any plans of what they would do if it became this big, the amount of people playing is definately more than most would have predicted but they haven't seemed to have had a plan B. I really hope it works out because I have met a lot of people playing this and it is the game I've been waiting for the last 20 years, I just question the fact that niantic are leading everything would have been better if Nintendo had a bigger part since they have much more experience
There are many forces in this world.
Some are good, some are bad.
Some we can see and some we can't.
Some we know about and others we are yet to discover.
Don't let anyone tell you anything is impossible.
For there is no one in this world you can truly know for sure.

Rai

Quarter Life Crisis! @[email protected]

Age 31
Female
Sinnoh
Seen January 4th, 2017
Posted January 4th, 2017
4,521 posts
18.1 Years
"Also too busy to communicate via social media? Do they not have a community manager? Are they so desperate that they are getting them to program too? That’s the biggest pile of bull**** right there."

I do think the step up for niantic between doing ingress and Pokemon Go is huge and you have to ask whether they really had any plans of what they would do if it became this big, the amount of people playing is definately more than most would have predicted but they haven't seemed to have had a plan B.
Actually I saw a post online saying that they do not have a community manager and are still in the process of hiring one. I think they really need to get on that.

I agree that they were incredibly overwhelmed with the amount of people playing and were not prepared for it. However, instead of shutting down Pokevision, I think they should team up with them and help each other figure out the problem.

I am glad to hear that they intend to bring back some sort of tracking system because otherwise playing the game would be futile, especially in my suburban area.


Pokemon Go Dex: 84
ORAS National Dex: 552

Blog || Fanfiction || Twitter || Tumblr || Instagram
Male
Indiana, U.S.
Seen September 20th, 2016
Posted September 11th, 2016
304 posts
6.9 Years

I do think the step up for niantic between doing ingress and Pokemon Go is huge and you have to ask whether they really had any plans of what they would do if it became this big, the amount of people playing is definately more than most would have predicted but they haven't seemed to have had a plan B. I really hope it works out because I have met a lot of people playing this and it is the game I've been waiting for the last 20 years, I just question the fact that niantic are leading everything would have been better if Nintendo had a bigger part since they have much more experience
I definitely agree that we're not getting the sort of communication you could reasonably expect from a developer right now.

What gives me hope is that I played Ingress. I know how good they are at interacting with the community in Ingress--I just think they were woefully unprepared for how huge this was going to be and they've made some missteps because of that. Hopefully they an find some banging new talent for PR and really capitalize on what they've built.
Fenrir---------------------Svetlana-------------------Blaine

Mmm, this IS a tasty burger!

Hiidoran

ohey

Age 32
Male
Indiana
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted February 4th, 2022
6,203 posts
17.6 Years
I mean, at least they finally stepped up and admitted to their lack of communication. I have no doubts that Niantic is working frantically to make their product agreeable by as many people as possible. They're simply looking at too much future revenue not to.

I agree with Squirrel though, I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of communication about removing the throw bonuses and some other unannounced changes. I get that they're busy, but they really should just pause for a second and give us just a tad of transparency.