'Pokemon Go' Loses Millions Of Players, Fans Are Asking Refunds In Droves

Throughout its successful two weeks in the U.S., critics and reviewers have been asking how long Pokemon Go can maintain its popularity. After its latest update, it seems those people now have their answer as millions of players are leaving the game and a lot of them are asking for refunds. As this debacle was occurring, Niantic Labs has been mostly silent.

As Kotaku noted, even the most devoted fans to the game and the Pokemon franchise, in general, are now turning on Niantic Labs. Aside from leaving the game in droves, players are also leaving a flood of one-star reviews and are pestering the company for refunds for in-game transaction fees.

The latest update released by the developers of the massively popular app contained changes that were generally for the better. There are the better customization and the rebalanced battle system, just to mention two. However, by removing the tracking feature of the game which told players how close the Pokemons were, Niantic essentially removed one of the players’ senses. By forcing other service providers to shut down their own Poke tracking offerings, the developers just declared war on their fans.

Playing the game without the tracking feature made it an issue to a lot of players and for good reason, Gamespot notes. Finding Pokemons with the tracker on was already hard enough, now it’s like trying to collect different species of insects the old way, like what entomologists do.

There’s definitely trouble brewing on the horizon that was brought about by Niantic’s mistake and as Forbes indicated, death threats are almost certain to come. If the company is unable to fix this problem and fast, the millions they are making daily could dry up quick and they could lose a lot of money if more players start asking for refunds.