Pokevision's Yang Liu has begged Niantic Labs to change its stance on 'Pokémon GO' trackers.
Pokémon GO
According to Liu, up to 50 million people used the third-party site to hunt down specific monsters in the hugely popular mobile augmented reality game and Niantic Labs' decision to block it is detrimental to the game.
In an open letter posted to medium.com, Liu wrote: "I write this not as one of the creators of Pokevision nor as player who has gone through the past few turbulent days in 'Pokémon Go'; instead, I write this as a fan of 'Pokémon' ever since I was 8 years old.
"Pokevision, at this time has grown to almost 50M unique users, and 11 million daily.
Half of the player base of 'Pokémon Go' stopped by -- and they didn't do so to "cheat." The game was simply too unbearable to play in its current state for many (note: many, not all). The main attraction wasn't that they got to have an advantage with Pokevision, the main attraction was that it allowed them to play 'Pokémon Go' more. This is what everyone wants -- to play 'Pokémon Go' more.
"When we closed Pokevision out of respect for your wishes, and at your requests, we trusted you guys fully in allowing the community to grow. I literally cannot express this more - we just want to play the game. We can handle the bugs every now and then, but please at least tell us you guys care. Yes, Pokevision does give some advantages that may be TOO much; but is it all that bad? 'Pokémon' has survived 20 years - even grown, I would say. And 'Pokémon Go' made it even bigger.
"'Pokémon' is everlasting. The same 151 Pokémon have been around for 20 years. If 80M people downloaded and played 'Pokémon Go' within a week (before it even released in multiple major countries) isn't an indication that no one can be sick of Pokémon, I don't know what is.
"After disabling the in-game tracker and Pokevision, the ratings on iOs and Android Google Play store went from 4.0 stars to 1.0-1.5. I am only one person, I admit that my sole opinion is not important, but what about the countless players begging for the game to be restored to its former state? I may be biased in saying that Pokevision being down had an impact on the amount of negative ratings, refund requests and outcry on social media -- but could it be true?"
Tagged in Pokemon