One of the more puzzling decisions made recently in Pokemon GO was the removal of the game’s handy battery saving mode for iOS users. Turns out there was a very good reason for that: It was busted.
Niantic have said today, “We had removed this feature as several users were experiencing it to be buggy, but we are fairly confident that a fix for this should roll out within the next several days.”
There’s also this:
We have been working long hours to fix many other bugs and bring some exciting new features to Pokemon GO in the future. However, next up for us is the continued roll-out of Pokemon GO to more countries around the world.
Like Latin America, which saw the game released there today. Including Brazil, just in time (or just a little too late for some) for the Olympics.
Comments
4 responses to “Pokemon GO’s Battery Saving Mode Is Coming Back To iOS”
It was removed? Good to hear, as yes it was not registering when I grabbed it from a ‘resting’ position and still displayed the black screen/logo.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but how – if at all – would an app developer handle developing not just for different SKUs but different versions of software? Without fail, the app crashes on me all the time but I believed that to be because I don’t have an officially compatible phone. It’s not you, it’s me etc etc.
I never had a problem with the battery saver myself (luckily). But my GF’s would crash nearly every time she used it.
Hopefully they can fix the god damned tracking soon also.
Right now I might as well put a sack on my head and run around in circles yelling “DRAGONITE”. I will catch just as many Pokemon.
Lets not fix the problems and instead launch it in more countries and create more problems we won’t fix.. sounds like the smart way.
In practice it doesn’t work this way. Release dates are scheduled months or more out. A company books in a date for the app store and then either a) meets that date or b) mises the date and then spend the next 3-6 months trying to re-schedule.
Granted Niantec thanks to the success would now have more negotiating power but 3 months ago no one knew who they were.
The release date must be hit and anyone who has worked in the industry knows who many BS bugs appear in a title due to localization. At the same time you team is limited and getting someone new in at this point is pointless as training them (getting them up to speed) will take a long time and you loose another person in the process.
So as an estimate (as no one could predict the games success) you have 10 testers, and 15 programmers working on every bug in the game whilst also adding in features for the next version and translating the text and testing those bugs. Average turn around is 3 bugs per programmer per week, you may have roughly 30 localization bugs, 10 game breaking bugs, and about 50 minor crash bugs, and a week til the Brazil deadline (This doesn’t include feature fixes, or additions, I’m also judging these on a typical title in early beta).
A manager needs to prioritize getting the new SKU out with minimal crashes, in the mean time pulling a feature rather than have it crash the game is a very quick and dirty fix, but it works. All this and the devs will be working 14 to 16 hour days over the past month and be suffering from burnout.
Even once the next SKU is released all efforts will then be on the next country, and the next. Before you rearrange the team to fixing the broken features or adding the next feature set.
I feel for these guys and at the end of the day there will be one guy working 7 days straight from 9am to 11pm, combing every piece of code trying to find the reason why “nearby” isn’t working. Or better yet why it works for him but not for millions of users.
I wish them god speed as they rush to attempt this, while every over-privileged 12 year old thinks they are ‘owed’ something because they can rant on the net.
Can confirm it was buggy. After going to power saving mode and back, the entire app become not responsive. Taps not being registered until app is restarted.
i am using “Battery Extender GO” the best battery saver for pokemon go. I suggest try.