Pokémon GO Is Dropping Support For Older iPhones

Not happy with this. I use an SE so I’ve just made it through, but I have no plans to upgrade any time soon...

Well that's the end of Pokemon Go for me then

Good job I haven't spent any money on it, but I have played it every day since it came out.

I'm not buying a new phone just to keep playing!

An example of why not to pay money in phone games, I think. I'd be really annoyed if I'd payed money in Pokémon Go. Now I would have no access to something I spent real money on. Imagine if a 3DS game got updates that meant the game would only run on New 3DS, or a PS4 game would only run on Pro after you paid money for it.

That’s my son out of the equation then - cheers Niantic. A lot of kids phones are old contract phones that belonged to their parents. I should imagine this will affect a lot of younger players.

Doesnt directly impact me (yet, running it on an SE) but that’s still unfortunate and annoying. I can understand games launching and saying “this won’t run on older handsets” but to launch it and then 2 years later say “we’re upgrading it so much that it will stop running on some older handsets” seems a little counterintuitive. That’s cutting off a (probably small) percentage of your installed user base, which can only foster bad will.

It doesn't actually say that those devices will definitely lose the ability to play the game... it's just a warning that they may do.

I use a Samsung Galaxy S5 myself, which probably isn't far off being in the same situation, and I've noticed that support for it hasn't been that great for a while (it's had an overheating problem for months, which they seem to be ignoring)... so I was already starting to think about upgrading.

I won't try to make out like I understand how creating and supporting such a game works, especially with so many phones on the market, but I do still feel this is a slap in the face for what I assume is still a hefty portion of their market.

In a world where upgrading phones is becoming more and more expensive, more and more people will be unable to upgrade their devises too often.

It only affects specific models, so it's worth checking whether your device is compatible or not. I have an iPhone 5, but it isn't on the list of affected models.

@sillygostly erm, read above and it says iPhone 5 is affected as it cannot update to iOS 11

I'm on SE, but I don't want to upgrade to iOS11...

The world should drop that evil money sucking company period.

@DragonEleven "They will need to switch to a supported device to continue playing Pokémon GO." makes it pretty clear.

@ImagineerNik I have a 5S but can't upgrade to iOS11 as none of my connected devices work past iOS 10.2.

Lots of people complaining. Just find a friend who upgrades every 6months, ask for one of their old like iphone 6 or 7.

It's no different than discontinuing support for Wii or WiiU. It's going to happen eventually.

Be mad at Apple for releasing 5 new phones per year. Makes it hard on devs I'm sure to make things compatible with so many versions.

@Bunkerneath : Whoops. I stand corrected. I had no idea mine was an S.

@deKay That's only referring to people who do lose the ability to play the game... you're looking at it out of context.

I have an iPhone 5S just recently (a hand me down as I broke my 4S), and was happy to finally be able to play this without it crashing every time I throw a ball. I don't want to update to iOS 11 though, so I won't be playing. Kills my battery anyway.

@DragonEleven "In an upcoming update, Pokémon GO will be ending support for Apple devices not capable of upgrading to iOS 11. This change is anticipated to take effect on 02/28/2018. After that date, Trainers will no longer be able to access Pokémon GO using any of the affected devices listed below."

"Trainers who attempt to access Pokémon GO using any of the devices listed above will no longer be able to sign in and will see a message stating that they need to switch to a supported device."

“This effects every model older than the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5c.”

That sounds like the 5 and 5c will continue to support Go even though the headline contradicts that.

@XCWarrior “It's no different than discontinuing support for Wii or WiiU. It's going to happen eventually.”

No it isn’t. I can still play every Wii U game I’ve bought even though the system is discontinued and I always will be able to. I don’t have to buy a Switch to continue playing Mario Kart 8 for example. The closest thing to this would be the loss of Miiverse functionality but even then the games are still playable.

I see large increase in the sale of cheap Android tablets. Get one set it up and then use your phone as a hot spot. Then you can keep playing Pokemon Go.

@olrodlegacy to be honest i felt the exact opposite, i upgrade my phone often, i felt the game was lagging so far behind the tech thats available on newer phones and thats because it was dragged back by people who dont upgrade their phones.

I've spent enough time being uphappy about that, maybe those who dont upgrade their phones at all should spent a bit of time being unhappy too. just sayin.

@GauBan I'm not carrying a tablet everywhere with me!

Not complaining, but I'm not upgrading just to keep playing this game either.

Has the iPhone ever been up to date to begin with? 😂😂😂

But sucks for those using those phones. I'll press F to pay respects.

You should edit the article. "This effects every model older than the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5c." would suggest that 5 and 5c aren’t being touched, but the quote clearly says they are as well. What you should have wrote, instead of "older than iPhone 5" is "iPhone 5c and older"

@Damo That was the perfect pic, nice.

And so I dont' have to set you off myself, read comment #27 above me by @Thisismycomment I was going to ask you if that was a British way of saying the same thing, I know we've had discussions in the past about subtle differences in language. Well mostly Tom and I, I try not to bother you. But as the other guy said, if 5 and 5C don't work as well, in the US we would say "older than the 6" or whatever Apple called the newer model. Or older than 5SE I guess from reading the other comments, not sure. But again, it could just be one of those things. I'm throwing a party for 50 people next week and I've been hung up on more than 1 occasion w/ the catering hall over whether it's "12 and up" for adult prices or "under 13" for kid prices. They don't mean the same thing like she thinks they do.

This is kind of lame, and it seems like there should be ways around it, like letting older phone owners nto upgrade and continue to play whatever version they are currently using, but this is what companies do.

My bank - the bank I do all of my personal banking with - just updated their app to only run on Android 5.0 and up. Both my Samsung phone and tablet which I bought the past 2 years were 4.4. When I go into the app it says I must upgrade to the newer version and it takes me into the Play store, then it tells me my device is not compatible. And this isn't a game, it's my banking app - deposit checks, pay bills, mostly move money round between accounts to pay bills. And just like that I can't. There are still cheaper $100 phones and tablets being sold w/ 4.4, but the bank just cut me off.

Also, and this is more similar than apple to apple, there have been games on PS3 where the game was supported, so people bought the game for $60, but the DLC was not, so people couldn't upgrade to the newest levels or whatever.

Destiny Rise of Iron, only on PS4/X1.

https://www.vg247.com/2016/06/10/why-destiny-rise-of-iron-isnt-coming-to-ps3-and-xbox-360/

GTA Online (only online, base game was fine)

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/09/10/rockstar-will-not-be-updating-gta-online-on-xbox-360-or-ps3-any-more

Now this is different, b/c people who owned the games could still keep playing them, just not get the updates, but stuff does happen. Lame stuff.

@Razer I got my phone last January. I haven’t got unlimited money to upgrade my phone every year.

Seems kind of strange to me. My android phone is about as old as the iPhone 5, and they aren't dropping support for it. iPhone in general usually run games better than the equivalent Android model, and the 5 isn't very old. Whatever, I didn't play this game past the first summer it was released.

@olrodlegacy iPhone 5 was released in 2012. iPhone SE in 2016.

@deKay OK a cheap Android phone. Again using the iPhone as a hotspot so still only one phone contract.

Or wasn't there a case for iPhone which had an Android device built into it. Eye Smartcase or something? That would mean you still have one device.

A reminder to me that I will soon be officially outdated with the next update (Have a 5s). Just trying to ride it out as long as I can.

Welp, thats me further and further away from owning a phone that can run go.....

I can see how upsetting this must be for fans with those phones but neither the app's developers or even Apple are to blame. These last five years have seen drastic changes in smart phone tech and for Pokemon Go to survive, it has to follow the times.

What I would suggest is getting a cheap iPhone 6 online. With a little patience, you can get one at the right price.

I'm good for a while then, I updated to the iPhone X over the holidays!

I've got an iPhone Z so unfortunately my phone is actually too futuristic to run the game.

Well that's pretty bad for the people it does affect!

I'm 110% sure this is because spoofing is much easier on older devices. Regardless, Android Master Race FTW...

Thankfully I use an Android phone to play, cuz originally I played with wifi on my ipod touch, which can get i0S 11, but I still didn't get it since I still want to use MANY apps DAT would otherwise get REKT

Lame. I quit playing regardless, after they made legendary pokemon a chore to catch via raids + reduced time limit. Phones are too expensive nowadays, esp if you won't make full use of features.

Sucks for players of Pokemon Go.
I only change phones every 4 or 5 years, (went from a Note 3 to a Note 8) because I take good care of my devices like a lot of people here. Would suck if I was forced to upgrade yearly.

This is what is called planned obsolescence or in this case more of forced obsolescence. And yet another reason I dislike the Smartphone/tablet platform.

@Maxz So it's so futuristic you just pay Apple and they don't even give you a phone anymore? I mean we already lost the headphone jack and home button, we will probably lose the screen next year...

@dazzlerJJD I probably didn't elaborate enough. WiiWare games have come off the service because the contract ran up. If you own it, you can still play it, but you can't buy it after that date.

Just upgrade your phone. You don't have to get the latest model, so get a 1 or 2 year old one that will be compatible on the cheap

Well I just skated by for now with a 5S.

I doubt it will last though. Ever since iOS11 was forced on there by them it hasn't been working right. Pokemon Go specifically will load twice usually before starting, get stuck loading, randomly touching stuff in game does nothing needing a restart of the game. Phone on the whole will drop calls, not register touches, randomly reset, get stuck trying to open up something more than once it shouldn't, and other fun garbage. I could see the Go group looking at how poorly it runs and just slicing anything under a 6.

Ha! My iPhone 4S could never play Pokèmon Go at all (I think)! Sorry, 5 and 5c, you're late to the party!

@MH4 SAME! except that it was able to play pokemon go... years ago when i wasnt playing .-.

@NateTSM And the award for “World’s Latest Reply” goes to... 😂

Lol

@MH4 lol

@NateTSM I have to say, I was genuinely shocked when I got a reply on this. 😂 This was one of the first comments I ever made!

@MH4 that was my 3rd comment xD

@NateTSM Well allow me to be one of the first to tell you:

Welcome to NL! I hope you like it! 😃

Sad! Why iOS device not capable of upgrading to iOS 11 will no longer be able to run the game?
Visit: http://iphonesupport.net/apple-id-support-number/