Search the Community

BY LUKE REILLY Poke-vision creator Yang Liu has described his disappointment regarding Pokemon Go’s current state in an open letter published via Medium. Explaining he was “never too excited about Pokemon Go” Liu conceded it became the “most amazing, yet simple thing” he’d seen in gaming, and he pronounced the effect of Pokemon Go has been “phenomenal.” “You’ve simply captured all of our hearts with Pokemon Go, Niantic,” wrote Liu. “But then, you broke it all too quickly.” Liu insists that Pokevision was built as a stop gap solution to Pokemon Go’s inoperative in-game tracking system and claims the team “had every intention in closing it down the minute that Pokemon Go’s own tracker restored functionality.” “We made Pokevision not to cheat,” wrote Liu. “We made it so that we can have a temporary relief to the in-game tracker that we were told was broken.” According to Liu Pokevision had grown to almost 50 million unique users, seeing 11 million daily before it was closed at Niantic’s request. “Half of the player base of Pokemon Go stopped by – and they didn’t do so to cheat,” Liu continued. “The game was simply too unbearable to play in its current state for many.” Liu also noted that since the closure of Pokevision and the disabling of the in-game tracker Pokemon Go’s user ratings on iOS and Android have plunged. The update Liu refers to, which altered the game’s ‘Nearby’ interface and has stopped players from being able to use supplementary third-party apps to track Pokemon, was released over the weekend. Niantic explained the reasons for the tracker’s removal yesterday, claiming it has 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,” said Niantic in its statement. “We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature.” Niantic also pointed the finger at third-party services for the decision. “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 Pokemon Go to users around the world.” Niantic recently shed light on what fans can expect from Pokemon Go in the future during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con.