When “Pokemon GO” arrived to the market, many gamers saw it as a major new trend setter, something which would remain in the headlines for a long time and will change the face of the industry. And while the game did manage to generate a lot of hype when it first game out, with thousands of players roaming the streets looking for their next big catch every day, the popularity of the title actually died down remarkably fast, even with all the marketing around it.
Most people following the development and progress of the title have attributed that to the attitudes of Niantic and Nintendo. Both studios seemed comfortable enough with the current state of affairs and didn’t put much effort into improving the game or giving it any long-lasting value, and the results were quick to follow.
Gone are the days of people enthusiastically discussing their local hot spots for catching Pokemon and posting screenshots from their experience on sites like Reddit. Right now, only a handful of dedicated players seem to be left, and the studio has been mostly catering to their needs.
A recently released Valentine’s Day special event for the game didn’t do much to revive its player numbers, despite a brief resurgence in popularity. Right now, things are mostly back to normal and people are once again not paying attention to “Pokemon GO”.
What happened though? Just a couple of months ago, this was the game that other developers were beating themselves up over not being able to copy. It was the perfect formula for Niantic and Nintendo, and they didn’t even have to put a lot of effort into retaining its popularity. And yet they somehow managed to put in even less than that, and the results are now in front of us.
One of the biggest flaws of “Pokemon GO” when it first launched was the relatively little diversity of content the game presented. It’s true that a player could spend many hours chasing Pokemon around, but other than that, the game didn’t have much substance to offer.
There were lots of talks about new features coming up that would refresh things and keep players hooked, but those developments came in far too slowly to keep anyone truly interested. By the time some of the more exciting features were announced, it seemed as if most players had already checked out and were looking in other directions.
The monetization practices in “Pokemon GO” faced a lot of criticism as well, as Niantic didn’t really try to hide the fact that they were eager to squeeze as much money as they could out of this release. Players were often forced to endure various tricks to make them pay even more money for their enjoyment, and at some point people just stopped caring enough to invest even more time and/or money into their experience.
Meanwhile, Niantic didn’t try to address those issues and kept presenting things as if everything was fine, which only served to add to the aggravation players felt with the state of things.
With all that in mind, it’s not actually that surprising that “Pokemon GO” is currently in this state. Can anything be done to save the game at this point though? There has been a lot of discussion within the community in this regard, and while most players are convinced that things are beyond recovery by now, there is a small handful of players confident that there is still hope.