Augmented reality mobile game Pokémon GO is suddenly on a downhill slope, as players have not reacted well to the latest update that was released for the app.
The frustrations have apparently not yet ended for Pokémon GO players though, as a new bug has made it extremely difficult to catch Pokémon in the game.
Developer Niantic Labs rolled out the app's first major update over the weekend, which added features and improvements such as allowing players to re-customize their avatars, memory issues to improve stability and damage adjustments for certain battle moves.
Players were expecting the update to include a fix to the three-step glitch, which is a bug that has caused the game's Nearby feature to display all Pokémon near the location of players with three footprints. The bug has made it difficult to determine just how near or how far the Pokémon actually are, which has prompted players to use tracking tools developed by third-party groups to find the locations of the Pokémon that they can catch.
However, Niantic instead scrapped the Nearby feature completely from the game and then moved to shut down the third-party tracking tools. This has sent players into a frenzy, as one of the core aspects of Pokémon GO that is having a reliable system to track and catch Pokémon, has been ruined.
And now, apparently, even if players do get lucky and are able to get a Pokémon in their sights to catch, the bug will make it much harder to capture even the lowest level Pokémon.
After the update, players have been seeing significantly more instances of Pokémon popping out of Pokéballs and Pokémon running away. It also seemed that some Pokémon have become harder to hit with the Pokéballs that players throw for capturing them.
In addition to the increased difficulty in catching Pokémon, Pokéball throws that used to reward players with bonus XP no longer do so, with the effects of these throws to increase the chance of catching Pokémon seemingly nullified.
There were claims that Niantic Labs intentionally increased the difficulty to catch Pokémon so that players will purchase more Pokéballs for added revenue. Other claims said that the developer made the game harder to drive away players, which would lighten the load on the app's servers.
Niantic Labs broke its silence through Twitter, where it confirmed the bug in Pokémon GO that increases the odds of Pokémon escaping and removed the XP bonus for special Pokéball throws.
Trainers, a new bug affecting throw accuracy increases the odds of escape and omits the XP bonus. We are working on a fix, stay tuned...
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) August 4, 2016
The developer ended the tweet by stating that it is working on a fix, but it did not state when players can expect the issue to be resolved. It is good to know that Niantic Labs is working to patch up the bug, but given all the bad experiences that the app has been giving players lately, some gamers could be starting to lose hope and interest in Pokémon GO.
