Forbes.com wrote:
Here comes the backlash. Over the weekend, Pokémon GO developer Niantic Labs made two moves that have made fans furious: first, a new update removed the footsteps from the “nearby†tracking screen, effectively nullifying the already-broken in-game tracking with the implication that it’s not getting fixed any time soon. At the same time, it shut down all the third-party tracking apps people had been using instead, making it impossible to hunt for particular Pokémon through any means. People are upset, and they’re using the lack of tracking as ammunition to successfully request refunds for Pokécoin purchases on both iOS and Android. The argument is that the game advertised tracking at the time they made those purchases, and that feature is no longer available.
There’s a reddit thread full of instructions and success stories, as well as a few mentions for people in tech support that say they’ve been overwhelmed by refund requests from Pokémon GO. I got a refund on a $4.99 purchase and can confirm that it went off perfectly, and I have yet to see the Pokécoins deducted from my account. It remains to be seen how this is going to be handled as more and more people start requesting refunds: we’re in relatively uncharted territory here. I’ve contacted Apple for comment.
I don’t envy Niantic right now: the developer made a mistake by shutting down third-party trackers before fixing the game’s native tracking, but a video game community scorned can be an ugly thing. Death threats are basically a certainty, and CEO John Hanke’s Twitter has already been hacked. But it’s an ugly situation all around: the company needs a community manager, or just the bare minimum of communication. I feel like just the smallest: “we know you’re upset, and we’re working on it†would go a long way towards alleviating the situation, but silence seems to be the order of the day.
Pokémon GO is headed for trouble if it doesn’t start to work on some of these things. The core reddit crowd is frustrated over these recent changes, and casual players are going to start running into an endgame without a whole lot to do. This is a game that’s been out nearly a month and now has less functionality then when it launched in an apparently unfinished state: that’s not a great place to be in. Communication would be a nice start, letting Pokévision and other apps continue to operate would be better, and more features would be best. As it stands, the developer risks being a flash in the pan, albeit a very big one.
There’s a reddit thread full of instructions and success stories, as well as a few mentions for people in tech support that say they’ve been overwhelmed by refund requests from Pokémon GO. I got a refund on a $4.99 purchase and can confirm that it went off perfectly, and I have yet to see the Pokécoins deducted from my account. It remains to be seen how this is going to be handled as more and more people start requesting refunds: we’re in relatively uncharted territory here. I’ve contacted Apple for comment.
I don’t envy Niantic right now: the developer made a mistake by shutting down third-party trackers before fixing the game’s native tracking, but a video game community scorned can be an ugly thing. Death threats are basically a certainty, and CEO John Hanke’s Twitter has already been hacked. But it’s an ugly situation all around: the company needs a community manager, or just the bare minimum of communication. I feel like just the smallest: “we know you’re upset, and we’re working on it†would go a long way towards alleviating the situation, but silence seems to be the order of the day.
Pokémon GO is headed for trouble if it doesn’t start to work on some of these things. The core reddit crowd is frustrated over these recent changes, and casual players are going to start running into an endgame without a whole lot to do. This is a game that’s been out nearly a month and now has less functionality then when it launched in an apparently unfinished state: that’s not a great place to be in. Communication would be a nice start, letting Pokévision and other apps continue to operate would be better, and more features would be best. As it stands, the developer risks being a flash in the pan, albeit a very big one.
