A recent update for Pokemon GO has been very controversial, and seems to have united the game’s substantial fanbase into criticizing the game heavily online. The changes, which include the removal of the Pokemon tracking feature, as well as making third party Pokemon tracking apps incompatible, and also, reportedly, making Pokemon harder to catch, have been roundly criticized by the millions of players playing the game online.
Responding to the backlash, developers Niantic took to Facebook to try and explain the changes. First listing out the changes they had made that had caused the furore, as well as recognizing that the game’s unavailability in a lot of countries around the world was causing frustration, they said, “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.”
They also specifically addressed the removal of the in game tracking feature, noting that the original feature was apparently obtuse and did not meet Niantic’s internal goals for clarity; they did however imply that they would work on re-adding the feature to the game in some kind of an improved capacity.
They also implied that the third party services that they blocked had apparently contributed to the server stress the game has experienced, noting that they wish to normalize server load as soon as possible, and bring the game to still more countries around the world.
Whether or not the response is satisfactory is something that the community alone will determine- however, it is good to see that the famously reclusive developer are now actually taking to communicating with their fans about the game.