Pokemon GO Rollout Delays Blamed On Third Party Apps, Services

Looks like Niantic Labs is not going to back down from stirring the hornet's nest, despite the growing disdain Pokemon GO fans have for the company. The game developers just released a statement regarding the recent events and issues clouding the still popular augmented reality game. In a nutshell, Niantic is putting the blame of the slower and delayed rollout of the game on third party sites and apps that, for legitimate reasons or otherwise, try to scrape data off Pokemon GO's servers.

There is one and only one official way to get Pokemon GO data, and that's via the official Pokemon GO app. Anything else is not only unofficial but also illicit, as per the game's Terms of Services. That is pretty much the hard line stance the Niantic is taking in light of the rise of apps and services, particularly mapping and tracking ones, connected to Pokemon GO.

Niantic says that, despite the benefits of these sites, it has a huge negative impact on the development of the game. They just recently launched Pokemon GO in Latin America, especially Brazil, just in time to keep athletes distracted from the Olympics. They would have done it sooner, they say, but the rollout was hampered by having to deal with those sites. Third-parties use various means to scrape off data from Niantic's servers, which exponentially increases the load on those servers. Plus, developers have to deal with those problems instead of using their time to develop the game and new features.

In short, if would be players are complaining about the slow rollout or slow development of Pokemon GO, they should be blaming those third party sites instead. Whether third parties access Pokemon GO servers for charitable reasons or to wreck havoc, both cases have the same negative effect on the game.

On the other side of the coin, these apps and services try to address issues and bugs that Niantic is slow to fix. For some, it has made the game even more enjoyable. Then again, Niantic is saying that their development is hampered by those third parties, so it's a chicken and egg problem.

Niantic is trying to appeal to Pokemon GO fans for understanding in why it had to make such an unpopular move. Blaming things on the sites it just blocked, however, is probably not going to sit well with those fans either way.

SOURCE: Niantic Labs