Pokémon GO Global Rollout Delayed While Niantic Fixes Server Woes

Here's GO-ping (😜) it'll come out over here soon.

I'm not waiting any longer, so I'll download and install the .apk file later today.

I am perfectly patient in waiting for Pokémon GO.

I would rather wait for my pre-order of the Pokémon GO Plus to be released and have an optimised version of the Pokémon GO app at the end of the month or whenever than be impatient and install a buggy version with potential viruses from sources other than the Google Play Store due to having to sideload it.

FYI it's only the US, not North America. Canadians are still waiting.

Bit annoying, my Pidgot is a beast, can't take gyms

@Miles_Edgeworth ouch

It struck a nerve alright. The Sciatic nerve.

@manu0 I'm sorry 😂😂

Not sure exactly what they meant by "We thiught it'd be popular but it clearly ctruck a nerve"

@Ooyah You can turn on a battery saver mode than puts the game in a "sleep mode" when it is upside down, but still tracks you and alerts you about Pokemon. This way the battery will last longer! 😉

Haven't had a chance to really get going on this game yet due to sever issues but I like what little time I have had with it.

Not somthing to play hard core but it's a nice distraction as I go trough the day.

Just caught an oddish while sitting on the John at work. Lol

You know, I expect it's not just server issues—which they REALLY should have been better prepared for—but the fact that children are walking into polices stations, hospitals, and even finding dead bodies.

All these issues basically sum up to me how little the developers cared about reaching that level of quality and polish (before launch) that most people [really should] expect from Nintendo games:

http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/7/12123750/pokemon-go-server-issues-ios-android-fix

Just imagine the uproar if Nintendo had released a SNES game back in the day with all these problems out-the-box. Yet, here we are in 2016 and it's almost something people aren't particularly shocked or upset about, they're simply making jokes about it as those it's no big deal, which is totally mental to me.

We should be raging at this level of quality coming from anything even remotely attached to Nintendo's name.

What the hell did they think? It's Pokemon with Cell phones....
There they go being tooo damn conservative AGAIN....

Ugh, mobile gaming. Barfs

Come on, how they didn't expect something with the word "Pokemon" to sell liked hotcakes?
The app isn't even available officially in my country, and a lot of people I know have downloaded it - and they aren't gamers. Pokemon has that appeal.

In my case, I'll wait for the official launch here in Latin America to see if the server works better.

@ekreig "We're still not at the amount of cash where we can make a comfortable bed with it."

@Kirk
The fact that the company is even attempting to correct these problems shows that this is still Nintendo. This is actually much better than some companies who could let this type of problem go on for weeks or months because that's not a problem they already have your money.

@LordGeovanni I'm pretty sure every developer that isn't basically a charlatan in his mum's basement would be trying to fix these kinds of issues. This isn't them doing anything special; it's simply them doing nothing more than what you'd absolutely expect them to do if they have any respect for themselves and their consumers. So yeah, they don't get a badge from me for trying to fix all the stuff that's broken about their game and service. I expect that as a matter of default.

It quite astonishes me to see that the game is so popular. In my small town in The Netherlands (where Pokemon Go isn't even released yet) people are already organizing events with hundreds, somethimes even thousands, of people signing up.

Seeing as how even my friends and their spouses is playing Pokemon Go, shows me that this is way more popular than anyone expected, and they haven't played Pokemon in 10+ years.

While Niantic fix their servers, The Pokemon Company should continue to fix the PTC accounts. Pretty much jealous that my friends are playing with their Google accounts, and I can't login for 2 days now (PTC account).

All of you people impatiently downloading the APK before Pokemon GO is/was released in your region is a major part of the problem.

@BlatantlyHeroic Or, maybe the developer should have thought of this and sorted it before release. We live in one big connected world now, and it's not crazy to expect an App like this to have a worldwide launch, with everything setup for that day one. And yes, you can't always see every possible issue in advance, but these guys probably should have known better.

I must say, the game is addicting. I live in a rural area, and I still find plenty of Pokemon around me. I can't wait to go into town. My coworkers were telling me there's a gym nearby our office. Pretty cool!

So. Many. Server. Issues. It's been incredibly frustrating. Even though I have it in still not touching it for a bit so I can actually enjoy it when I do. Maybe you'll get lucky, but honestly, it's not worth getting early right now, based on my experience anyway.

@Kirk No it's not crazy to expect a worldwide launch, but it's also not unreasonable that there wasn't one. This is a big freakin game with a lot going on in it. Slow rollout so they can bugfix on the fly makes sense. The APK users are likely a huge part of the problem and that's not Niantic's fault. The games wasn't released in your region for a reason, don't illegally download it and then complain when it doesn't work as expected.

As for your other concerns, for a smartphone game in early stages of life, I find the game to be quite pleasant. There are game freezes here and there but I think that's more on account of my internet connection than anything.

I saw that coming. Why am I not surprised?

@Kirk Not really. Buying server space isn't as easy as going to the corner store and buying a six pack, especially when you have to take into account you have to buy enough to support tens of millions of people. They bought a certain amount for the countries that would be the most likely to spend money for the in app purchases. With everyone else getting impatient, of course it's going to slow it down and introduce bugs. The NA servers were bought to handle NA not NA, Europe, and most of South America. Also Nintendo has very little to do with this. If you have an issue with bugs and whatnot then take it to the developers, Niantic.

I don't get it, wasn't this the type of stuff DeNA was partnered for? Don't they have experience in mobile app/gaming infrastructure?

@Damo

Please fix the "North America" to "US" because it is not out in North America. The US is the only country where it is available on the continent. It is not available to the other 22 countries.

@Kirk

How could they have expected someone to find a dead body? Come on, same with walking into police stations. They had it right in the tips that once you're in range you can use the Pokestop and that you actually don't need to go to the location to get the stuff. They can't really control those things because you can't control where people go, walk to, hike, bike, whatever. As for the servers, the only real way to be prepared is to get a server that is ready for 3 billion people and really, that's a waste of money. I guess they could have been a bit more prepared but if you look at every large product that uses servers for large volumes of traffic, they always have trouble at launch. The only real issue is the servers and they are working on them. The other "issues" you outlined could only be fixed by not having the app.

It actually didn't launch in all of
North America, just the US. Canada and Mexico are so close, literally, yet so far.

@Kirk But it wasn't a worldwide launch it was a test. People couldn't wait patiently for it to be rolled out. Can't blame the company for people acting impulsively. On the same note though they should have opted for a closed beta testing in those regions, there would have been some leaks, but not as many as there were in this instance.

I can hardly play the game. It needs not only better servers, but some performance boosts as well. My tablet from 2 years ago can't run the game without crashing just from how much cpu the game demands for scrolling down menus.

I was fortunate enough to get logged in late yesterday afternoon and find a few Pokemon near me but when I got close they simply disappeared. Not sure if that was a Wi-Fi issue or a server issue or me just not knowing how to play - I've only captured starter Charmander so far - but is certainly isn't going smoothly.

I think they'll be "comfortable" in Sept when all the kids are back in school.

@gatorboi352 DeNA partnered with Nintendo, not Niantic.

@kirk I think you seem to think that 100% of all issues should be completely ironed out before any user ever experiences it. In other words that the company should be 100% perfect and have not one issue. Tell me, are you as hard on other companies as you're on Nintendo? I've noticed you've been very vocal against Nintendo pretty much every time there's a minor issue. People jumping on on an app which was not global at that time. Again, like amiibo, Nintendo assumed fewer people would be involved than actually are. Which of course is actually a reasonable thing, we don't want anything thoughtless spending of money on something that people are not going to use. At the very least the only good thing that Nintendo has possibly done with this, was make it so that you can complain about them again.

I know it's mobile Pokemon, which is bound to have a strong reaction, but I think I feel their surprise too. So many friends and family of mine, who have never played Pokemon in their life, are enjoying this app. Guess they just didn't calculate the appeal of this app to those outside the Pokemon fan base.

Which was a mistake on their part, so they really should have those servers running like smooth butter if possible.

Unless I'm mistaken, the only country in "North America" that the game is available in is the United States. Canada is an entirely separate country.

@the-madprofessor right, making this deal with this dev even more puzzling. Why not have DeNA work this alongside Nintendo instead?

I'm guessing i wont be able to link this to my nintendo account?

@gatorboi352 Because it's the pokemon company that made the deal, not Nintendo. The pokemon company makes their own deals with the branding and usage of the pokemon IP. Outside of taking a moderate cut, Nintendo have nothing to do with this.

Originally I was mad that we didn't get ithere in Europe, now I'm honestly kind of happy. The servers are so peaceful during the day (sorry non-European players).

@Uzuki I think Nintendo are also producing the accessory, but that's about as far as their involvement in this app goes.

I have to wonder, if the system and resource requirements for this game weren't so high, and didn't literally track every user every step of the way, to have their movements and habits be recorded for indefinite accessibility, and used with who knows how much discretion by whoever happens to have access that data... Then perhaps having .apk users from other regions wouldn't have broken the servers in the first place. The way the game is set up is neat, but the requirements to get it working seems like an answer looking for a problem to me. If the user's experience didn't require being tracked and constantly communicating with a remote server, this game would probably work far more smoothly.

@Kirk Well, you know how people are today. Criticize any element of games they have an attachment to, even if there's a fundamental flaw in how it works, and they'll lunge at you. Most people don't even question the back end of how this sort of game works.

@LordGeovanni No, not 100% of all issues, just the biggest and most obvious ones.

I'm as hard on everything as I am on Nintendo, all things being relative.

And, I complain when there's something to complain about.

@Uzuki I'm not on a Niantic fan site, but if I were I would make my issues with them and there part in this clear too.

It's only server issues because the demand is incredible. No game would have servers that could cope.

So if the CEO of Amazon lives in uk (vodafone uk) how is he legally playing it?? x)

I can't fault them for a conservative estimate. I actually thought this would flop. Goes to show how much I know.

@Kirk Then instead of going to a fan site, why not contact Niantic directly and complain? Going on a Nintendo fan site complaining about something that no one working at Nintendo is going to see and even if they do see the problems there's nothing they can do about it. Again Nintendo has no part of this outside of advertising it and The Pokemon Company is just loaning the IP out to the developers, the people you want to actually talk with because they made the game. The only big issue that there is with it are the server issues and that's mainly because they didn't buy enough servers and the ones they did buy are being used by people who aren't suppose to be playing the game yet.

It has been dramatically better the past 24hours.

The game certainly is popular, much more than I expected anyway. The other day I was trying out the game with a friend in town near a collection of pokestops, when a nearby cop car said over their radio, "Hey are you guys playing pokemon go?". He drove up to us and was wondering why so many guys were walking through this path. I assume he probably goes on reddit, so he had some idea as to what all the traffic was about. Anyway, we made another friend, along with the many others we met on our walks. Good day.

I had a flawless experience for several hours today with my PTC account. Past midnight I discovered that a large, local park was jam packed with poke stops and gyms. I arrive and I end up talking to 30+ other people my age (25) that are all poke hunting in the middle of the night. Incredible experience. Pokémon go is the future of gaming. The gps system is magical. I caught a grimer! I am so glad I preordered Pokémon go plus!

For those that forgot - Pokemon Go was outlined as part of Nintendo's QOL program.

Focusing on health (Physically getting out to catch pokemon) and technology based (Mobile & App)

Cha-Ching!!!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/10/satoru_iwata_outlines_nintendos_first_qol_platform

@Uzuki Look, stop trying to deflect the point and any blame away from Nintendo here. This is basically a Nintendo licensed and published game for all intents and purposes (Nintendo owns a large share in the Pokemon IP and the Pokemon Company)—that's why it's specifically discussed in Nintendo investor meetings (it's not just some random third party title that has nothing to with Nintendo directly)—and it's below par as far as I'm concerned. I'm on a Nintendo site where an article has been posted about this game, and I'm bringing up the issues I see with it.

And, just for the record:

"What we see is the sole owner, Nintendo, of the Pokemon logo and the characters that inhabit the Pokemon world, such as the likes of Pikachu, Togepi, among many others . . . the Pokemon franchise is owned by three separate entities: Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc; however, Nintendo, in addition to having partial ownership, are trademark owners of the Pokemon logo, and Pokémon character names . . . money generated through software sales pass through Nintendo's financials firstly, and are then re-distributed to The Pokemon Company as they are also co-publishers. Thus, the bulk of the money goes to Nintendo, and then a small percentage is also given to TPC." – http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1008721

Basically, as long as Nintendo doesn't agree, there won't be a main series or otherwise Pokemon product on a non-Nintendo system.

So, let's not be a total fanboy here, and let's allow Nintendo to take ownership and responsibility for its part in this game being what it is.

@Uzuki "Then instead of going to a fan site, why not contact Niantic directly and complain? Going on a Nintendo fan site complaining about something that no one working at Nintendo is going to see and even if they do see the problems there's nothing they can do about it"

Nobody will do that. They're too happy wasting hundreds of hours of their lives complaining in here.

The worst part is knowing that the fad will be over by the time it releases here. I want to be cool, Niantic!

North America ≠ United States of America 😒

@Kirk

Exactly - 'Probably'. There's no way to truly tell if some of the problems were realistically foreseeable, though there's every chance they were, so you may well be right.

The complexity and nuance of the technology behind these sorts of things has almost certainly expanded faster than our capacity to fully understand and control it, which would explain why there is a vast difference in the variety and number of issues between things like this now and 25 years ago. There were glitches in old games but almost never game breaking for regular gamers. Things seem to be in a more precarious and ambitious territory generally now, and the balance between conforming to release dates and how much risk to associate with the content and the inclusion of updates/DLC to correct it all hangs in the balance. If you CAN update something then you can afford to use that and lower the risk and such I imagine, but I'm sure it's a very involved process. In an ideal world we would have no delays and good quality products but it seems to be a very fine art now.

@TearTheRoofOff "but it seems to be a very fine art now."

Indeed—one I would have expected Nintendo to get just a bit closer to perfecting than the average mobile startup out there.

It's 2016, not expecting heavy load on a new hyped game is rookie mistake. It's like every game launch from Blizzard "Sorry the servers broke, we only expected 5 people to try and login at once". -.-