Earlier this year the mobile game “Pokemon Go” was released, after monumental amounts of hype that had Pokemon fans new and old waiting anxiously for its release. Upon its release, the game generated between $3.9 million and $4.9 million in its first day, according to Digital Market Ramblings, an online aggregator that tracks video game statistics.
Fans went wild now that they had the opportunity to experience hunting Pokemon in an augmented reality, where there could be a Bulbasaur or a Pikachu hiding in their neighborhood parks. The game was downloaded 50 million times in its first 19 days, and while it had its problems, it received rave reviews.
Various server crashes and trespassing accusations against some players didn’t stop people from pursuing a rare Pokemon in the late hours of the night. Pokemon Trainer Gyms popped up in various cities, teams of players formed, and local businesses even started advertising Pokemon that could be caught inside their businesses. Satellite Coffee in the UNM SUB even advertised a Snorlax that could be caught in the shop’s vicinity.
Suffice it to say the game was a social phenomenon that quickly occupied the free time of many players. But what happened to this pop culture force of nature? Where has it gone?
“Pokemon Go,” despite its roaring popularity, may have just been a passing fad like many mobile games that have come before it, including “Clash of Clans” or “The Simpsons: Tapped Out.” You might have noticed that many businesses no longer display the Pokemon you can catch on their premises. So why has the game fizzled out?
One contributing factor could be the fact that “Pokemon Go” is not actually made by Nintendo, the company that created the Pokemon franchise. When “Pokemon Go” was released, Nintendo’s stock shares skyrocketed according to The Verge then quickly fell as it was discovered that Nintendo was not the developer.
As it turns out, the game was a collaboration between the Pokemon Company, a Japanese company that licenses Pokemon products, and a company called Niantic, which has produced augmented reality games in the past.
Nintendo, the company famous for producing the games that were a part of so many players’ childhood, didn’t actually produce the game that had become a part of their adulthood. This hurt the heart of the players, but the decrease in player numbers began in July, when frustrated players expected a patch to fix many bugs with the game, according to reports from Heavy.com.
The app update players expected was meant to fix the server crashes that occurred frequently, and glitches that caused the game to freeze while catching Pokemon. What players got was a fix that corrected a text issue. The server crashed once more and the bugs that players wanted Niantic to fix still persisted.
Many players began to quit out of frustration, and the usage numbers fell from 25 million daily users on July 14 to 22 million daily users on July 20, according to statistics by Survey Monkey. Pokemon Go lost 3 million users in a matter of six days.
While the number of downloads for “Pokemon Go” reached 100 million on Aug. 1, what the headlines don’t tell is that the bulk of those downloads was on the game’s release day. The number of downloads and daily users had been slowly decreasing since July.
Niantic has recently released “Pokemon Go Plus” to woo gamers back in, with its ability to notify players of nearby Pokemon. But the game still saps phone life, and IGN reports that the bugs from July have yet to be completely resolved.
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What was once a phenomenon may have sabotaged itself into becoming a passing fad. Can the game make a comeback? Only time will tell.
Fin Martinez is the culture editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @FinMartinez.
