Re:Pokemon Go isn't the solution to Nintendo's problems
by pwinnski on Friday July 22, 2016 @11:38AM
(#12144180)
I'm not sure I understand the logic of "it can't be popular because the servers are always down." It seems, of course, because it's so popular that the servers are often down. It also seems that periods of downtime are extended, but sporadic: http://ispokemongodownornot.com/
Put yourself in Niantic's shoes, pre-release. Let's say that you start with, "Let's pick our busiest day ever for Ingress, and double that." Then someone else in the room says, "No, triple it." And something else says, "No, quadruple it!" The problem is that none of those would be remotely enough. This game is the most popular game in mobile history, and while it's easy to say, "of course!" and point to the confluence of Pokémon and other trends to explain it, nobody predicted that this morning in Addison, Texas, at 9:30am, there would be 26 people ranging from young children to retirees playing the game in a local park.
Perhaps the game is already on the way out, but for now it's bigger than any mobile game has ever been, so difficulty scaling doesn't surprise me at all.
Put yourself in Niantic's shoes, pre-release. Let's say that you start with, "Let's pick our busiest day ever for Ingress, and double that." Then someone else in the room says, "No, triple it." And something else says, "No, quadruple it!" The problem is that none of those would be remotely enough. This game is the most popular game in mobile history, and while it's easy to say, "of course!" and point to the confluence of Pokémon and other trends to explain it, nobody predicted that this morning in Addison, Texas, at 9:30am, there would be 26 people ranging from young children to retirees playing the game in a local park.
Perhaps the game is already on the way out, but for now it's bigger than any mobile game has ever been, so difficulty scaling doesn't surprise me at all.