Pokemon GO developer Niantic gives a detailed explanation about why it closed down popular Pokemon tracking sites like Pokevision, citing server issues for the action.
Despite being a resounding success for developer Niantic, Pokemon GO has received a fair amount of criticism from players. From the server issues that plagued the game’s first few days, to the problems with the in-game tracker, players haven’t been afraid to let their feelings be known.One of the biggest frustrations among Pokemon GO players was Niantic’s recent shutdown of Pokemon tracking sites like Pokevision, which helped players locate specific Pokemon in their communities. To make matters worse, the developer failed to provide any reasoning behind their decision to shut down Pokevision and other services like it.
Finally, it seems Niantic is ready to provide some detailed answers. In a recent blog post, the developer offered an explanation, citing server slowdowns as the reason for taking down tracking sites. Niantic said this in the post:
As some of you may have noticed we recently rolled out Pokémon GO to Latin America including Brazil. We were very excited to finally be able to take this step. 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. We blocked some more of those attempts yesterday. Since there has been some public discussion about this, we wanted to shed some more light on why we did this and why these seemingly innocuous sites and apps actually hurt our ability to deliver the game to new and existing players.Niantic offered the below simple graph to illustrate its point about the pressure Pokevision and other sites were putting on the Pokemon GO servers.
The developer went on to explain how it was forced to dedicate valuable resources to fixing server issues, rather than focusing on adding new features and providing a better experience for players. Niantic also cited cheaters and hackers as cause for freeing up server space:
It’s worth noting that some of the tools used to access servers to scrape data have also served as platforms for bots and cheating which negatively impact all Trainers. There is a range of motives here from blatant commercial ventures to enthusiastic fans but the negative impact on game resources is the same.Not surprisingly, now that Pokemon GO players know the reasons behind the shutdown, they’re more accepting of the action. It’s enough to make one wonder why Niantic was so tight-lipped about the issue previously. Hopefully the developer has learned the value of open communication with its customers and will continue the practice. Players are also hoping to see Niantic add new features and Pokemon to Pokemon GO soon now that it has seemingly freed up some time for the developers.
Of course, there are also outright hackers out there attempting to break into systems, hijack social media accounts, and even bring down the service.
What do you think about Niantic’s decision to shutdown sites like Pokevision? Are you happy with the explanation?