The Pokémon GO community has been perplexed by what looked to be the sudden appearance of various players claiming to have acquired legendary Pokemon like Articuno.
Is it the real deal? A mistake? A hack?
As it turns out, it looks like a few Pokémon GO players, including this one in Ohio, really did snag themselves an Articuno. Unfortunately, it seems like the appearance of the legendary Pokemon wasn't intentional. It was actually a mistake, and developer Niantic has since revoked the legendary pocket monsters from the accounts of players lucky enough to have gained one.
Here's Niantic's full statement on the matter, via IGN:
"We recently noticed that a few Legendary Pokemon got into a few accounts when they shouldn't have. To preserve the game's integrity and as a measure of fairness, we have rectified the situation and revoked the legendary Pokemon from the Trainers' accounts."
To call the entire situation bizarre is an understatement. Niantic has been losing fans left and right after forcing various Pokémon tracking sites like PokeVision to shut down, and the developer's lack of communication with its fanbase only continues to hurt the game. Upset fans have review bombed the game on the iOS and Android app stores, but Niantic, aside from a brief Facebook post, has yet to go in-depth on why exactly certain controversial changes to the game were made last week.
The fact that legendary Pokémon accidentally found their way into the Pokeballs of certain trainers seems like yet another example of how Niantic is struggling to control the massive phenomenon it has created. Of course, the players lucky enough to have accidentally received a legendary Pokémon are no doubt upset about Niantic now snatching them away.
There's also the fact that it took Niantic more than a day to release a statement on the matter, which, in the meantime, led to all kinds of crazy fan speculation, outrage and frustration. A simple yes or no answer from the developer would have sufficed while it worked on a solution, but instead, the company stayed silent as the game's community struggled to understand what was going on.
Since the game's launch, it has been one problem after another. This isn't the first Pokémon GO controversy, and there's a good chance it won't be the last, either.
