The most stunning thing about Pokémon Go, Nintendo’s implausibly successful attempt at resuscitating itself, isn’t its popularity—instead, it’s the wide gulf between the fun factor of the game is and the shoddiness of the app.
The latest bug, first reported by Dogecoin founder and developer Jackson Palmer on Reddit, apparently locks out anyone who logs into the app with a Pokémon Trainer Club account instead of a Google account. According to Palmer, the bug only appears if users download the latest version of the game for iOS. Two commenters in the Reddit thread reported having similar issues logging in with their Pokémon Trainer Club accounts.
According to Palmer, the app doesn’t even attempt to send an HTTP request when logging in, indicating that this part of the app is totally broken. Palmer warns players using iOS not to update to the latest version of the app, since “it can take days or weeks to get an update pushed to the app store.” That’s a lot of time away from your pokémon.
Niantic, the company behind the game, didn’t respond to Motherboard’s request for comment in time for publication. However, a popular Pokémon Go-focused Twitter account tweeted late on Tuesday afternoon that “it looks like a lot” users are having trouble looking in using the Pokemon Trainer Club with the latest app update.
This problem is a laughably minor one in the grand scheme of things—I mean, sure, some people in their late 20s won’t be able to run around catching pokémon for a while—but it underscores a criticism that some observers have levied against Pokémon Go: namely, that the app is a hacky travesty.
On the flipside, the app’s apparently sub-par construction doesn’t seem to be having much of an effect on its success just yet. If anything, it illustrates how a well-designed game can win out even over terribly-designed technology.
It’s a lesson that many folks pegging the future of mobile gaming to a specific technology—augmented reality—may do well to take note of.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article cited the official Pokémon Go Twitter account, when it was in fact a popular—though unofficial—account. This article has been updated to reflect this and Motherboard regrets the error.
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