Pokémon Go fans were recently outraged at the fact the game’s creator, Niantic Labs, had blocked third-party apps and sites that helped find Pokémon. Now the company has revealed its motivations were for the players’ own good.

Sites and apps like Pokévision were created by third-parties but they tapped into Niantic Labs servers to show when and where Pokémon were going to appear, making hunting easier. These were shut down and everyone kicked off, thinking it was some sort of control to make it more fair. But since those living in the countryside, where Pokémon are more rare, felt at a disadvantage anyway - this didn’t go down well.

It turns out the real reason for the shutdown was to save server power. Primarily this was so that the game could be launched in Latin America. But it is also down to those server fails and app crashes that have been the source of so many complaints.

Beyond that it also should help the game grow and develop in the future. At the moment developers are working to fix server strain issues but now are freed up to work on future game updates, says Niantic.
If you’ve noticed throwing Pokéballs to catch Pokémon has become harder recently, you’re not alone. This was not a shrewd move by the company to sell more Pokéballs and Razz Berries. Niantic says this is a bug that it is actively trying to fix right now.

'Written by Luke Edwards.'