Niantic respond to Pokémon Go ‘3-step’ removal and tracking backlash

After days of silence, Niantic have finally responded to the backlash after an update to Pokemon Go removed the ‘3-step’ Pokemon tracking feature, as well as the move to block third party trackers such as Pokévision.

Their statement covers a couple of subjects, the biggest of which is to to with the way we all track Pokemon – officially or not. The company confirmed that the ‘3-step’ feature has been removed and was done because it was confusing. It also didn’t work… but they’re working on something better and promise to keep everyone updated.

On third party trackers, Niantic have limited access to these services because they were “interfering with our ability to maintain quality of service for our users”. The large number of users has been a challenge for the company and the roll out is continuing with them calling out Brazil especially – no doubt because of the Olympics.

“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. We want you to know that we have been working crazy hours to keep the game running as we continue to launch globally. If you haven’t heard us Tweeting much it’s because we’ve been heads down working on the game. But we’ll do our best going forward to keep you posted on what’s going on.”

While this statement isn’t a solution to the problems, it’s finally an acknowledgement from the company about them and a promise of more frequent updates.

We have no doubt Niantic is working hard on the issues in the game, more statements like this are welcomed.