'Pokémon GO' Turns An Important Corner As Niantic Opens Up At Last

In the last few days, something has changed with Pokémon GO and its excitable fanbase. No, not the game itself. Tracking still doesn’t exist, wild Pokémon are still problematic and GPS spoofing is a spreading cancer threatening to destroy the Poké-ecosystem, but something is different, and that something is that Niantic is finally start to speak openly about the game, its problems and its coming solutions.

Half of the complaints about recent changes to Pokémon GO have stemmed from one issue: that Niantic has to date taken a position of almost eerie silence in regard to explaining anything about the state of the game. When tracking disappeared, fans didn’t know why or for how long. But now, someone over at Niantic has gotten the message, and the last two days have brought two separate Facebook announcements regarding various issues, and communication seems to have picked up in other areas as well (returning requests for comment).

The first Facebook FB +1.54% post explained why the tracking footprints were removed (with a broken system, they’re just confusing) and did indicate they are working to “improve” this feature, and would keep fans updated on the progress. The second Facebook post? Well, let’s break it down:

Trainers,

We are excited to share a few more details with you regarding Pokémon GO:

- Central and South America – Break out the sneakers and Poké Balls, and get ready to explore the world around you. We are excited to officially be putting Pokémon GO in the hands of our Latin American fans, visitors, and the Olympic athletes in Rio!

Niantic has usually been communicating about when GO was live in new countries, but in this case, they actually indicated sometime before this announcement that the Brazil launch was coming. This is unlike say, the France and Japan launches where no one had any idea when those were coming until they suddenly happened out of the blue. This is progress.