The global phenomenon that is Pokemon GO has started to lose some of its luster after nearly a month on the market. Although the mobile game still sits at the top of Apple’s top downloaded and top grossing apps lists, some fans have grown frustrated with both the removal of the key Pokemon tracking feature made in a recent update and in the game’s failure to launch worldwide.
“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,” the Pokemon GO team wrote on Facebook. “We want you to know that we have been working crazy hours to keep the game running as we continue to launch globally.”
The team cited limited access to third-party services that makes it difficult to keep the game online with so much traffic for its delay in launching worldwide, while assuring fans of the tracking system that they are doing their best to get the feature back online and working properly.
Without the tracking feature, trainers have been forced to simply hope for the best when hunting Pokemon.
When Go was first released, players could track down nearby Pokemon by looking at footprints under nearby creatures found in the game’s Pokemon tracker. Getting closer to a Pokemon lowered the number of footprints beneath it, allowing players to pinpoint their desired catch. Unfortunately, the useful feature caused a lot of stress on the game’s overcrowded servers, often causing the app to crash.
A bug forcing the footprints to remain at three, signaling that a Pokemon is far away but within walking distance, developed a few days after launch, and in the latest update the system was removed entirely. Nearby Pokemon still show up on the tracker, but it is unclear just how close they are to a trainer’s location.
Since exploring the world to track down Pokemon is the ultimate objective of Pokemon GO, the team needs to find a quick fix to the tracking system before trainers start to lose interest in the game. Here’s hoping they fix the app up soon so I can get back to hunting down Pokemon for Team Valor’s honor!
