A tracker feature came with "Pokémon GO" when the game was first released in July. Niantic, however, disabled the feature weeks after launch and left players to fend for themselves when it comes to tracking Pokémon in the wild.
Third-party and unofficial apps such as PokéVision have surfaced afterward to replace the missing "Pokémon GO" tracker, but those were shut down by Niantic. Naturally, users are outraged and they have demanded the game developer for a tracking feature.
Niantic promised that a "Pokémon GO" tracker is coming to players' way and they seemed to be fulfilling that when they rolled out an overhauled tracking feature in beta, but only in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The biggest question by players out of the location is whether Niantic will release the "Pokémon GO" tracker in other areas soon. The answer, unfortunately, is bound to disappoint players.
A Niantic representative told Polygon that currently, there is "no estimated timeline to potentially rolling it out wider." The "Pokémon GO" geo-locked tracking feature in San Francisco is still being tested by the developer.
The remaining dedicated "Pokémon GO" players have warned Niantic that they would ditch the game if an in-game tracker won't become available soon. One Reddit user complained that Niantic removed the "Pokémon GO" trackers just as the winter season nears, adding that no player would go out and "wander around aimlessly in the cold" to hunt for Pokémon.
FastPokéMap, a third-party "Pokémon GO" map tracker that was disabled by Niantic, announced via Twitter on Wednesday, Oct. 12 that they are coming back. The developer behind the tracker also published a statement directed to Niantic titled "The fall of Pokémon GO."
"We should be running again by Friday/Saturday. Testing everything," FastPokéMap said on the social media site.
In the post, FastPokéMap's developer accused Niantic of "self-sabotaging the game on purpose to try to 'control' the growth" of "Pokémon GO." The post pointed out that tracking isn't the biggest problem with "Pokémon GO" but Niantic's security measures, which, instead of preventing people from fiddling with their codebase, is actually hurting the players' progress.
FastPokéMap's post also advised Niantic to stop itself from becoming another Hello Games (developer of "No Man's Sky"). They are urging Niantic to listen to the "Pokémon GO" community and "open the API" to save the game's dwindling users.
Are you frustrated about the absence of a tracking feature in "Pokémon GO?" Do you agree with Fast PokéMap's views? Tell us your thoughts below.
