The latest Pokemon Go update has been released, with version 1.0.3 hitting the Apple App Store and 0.29.3 arriving on Google Play. The patch notes don’t tell much, simply saying the update fixes “minor text files”. This has been utterly disappointing to players of the game who have been dealing with glitches, bugs, freezes, and server crashes for over a week.
In fact, with the release of the update the Pokemon Go servers went down almost immediately. This prompted many to get their hopes up that the now infamous three steps glitch was being addressed. Now that some are able to get back in they are reporting the bug is still present, with many theorizing that it is an intentional method of saving server time and load.
Pokemon Go has been a smash success, quickly becoming one of the biggest mobile games of all time. Yet, despite this success developer Niantic has been very strangely silent on the game, and its myriad issues. Servers seem to go down on a daily basis, sometimes for planned maintenance, like this update, other times due to unforeseen traffic congestion. Still, Niantic has remained completely silent on the matter.
What is most troublesome about this is that Pokemon Go utilizes real money items that rely on time. Players around the world likely used a Lucky Egg, Lure, or Incense right as the servers went down, essentially throwing their money away. Players can file a help desk ticket, but with millions of players it likely won’t receive a response any time soon.
Niantic is currently looking for a new community manager, so the hope is that once they hire one they will begin interacting with their players more often. We’ll have to wait and see, but for now players are beginning to get restless about the constant problems that Pokemon Go has made them deal with, and the silence only makes things worse.
