On the inevitable decline and death of Pokemon Go

Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a missed opportunity, either one’s own, or someone else’s. This statement encapsulates Niantic’s “Pokemon Go” with unfortunate acuteness.
For a game that became – if only for a few weeks – the biggest thing since sliced bread, and made over 500 million dollars according to Businessofapps.com, the game is a glitchy mess of removed features and pay-to-win add-ins; thus the exodus of its users reflects nearly every other trendy mobile app.
The most important part of “Pokemon Go” isn’t found in the gameplay: it is, in fact, in the warning to corporations seeking to capitalize on nostalgia or overnight hits.
Over ten million users have quit since the first month, and average daily usage has plummeted at astounding rates; more than 35 percent of the userbase is leaving, according to Businessofapps.com.

While coasting on previously established brand names works in the short run, there is massive potential for far greater revenue and customer satisfaction with a little investment, especially once there is a proven massive market.
True innovation – especially that which invokes an unprecedented degree of augmented reality and a maternal-like instinct for virtual monsters — should not find itself so awkwardly impaired by the traditional limitations of cell-phone based gaming.
Take, for example, the tracking feature that was removed without warning, or the stale leveling system that becomes exponentially more difficult.
Without tools to keep gamers hooked, “Pokemon Go” lost the potential to be a Pokemon hunting and battling simulator.
There could have been battles with or against friends, or a way to heal Pokemon. There is no investment in anything you catch; pokemon seem to only exist as an expendable resource to increase a repository of more of the same exact Pokemon. There isn’t anything to aim for other than to reach a higher level or number by repeating the same actions over and over and over again, an exasperating monotonicity which is only exacerbated by depressingly low capture rates.
In essence, the game’s foremost flaws can be expounded by a fourteen year old whose life-long gaming nexus is summarized by “Angry Birds,” “Farmville,” and “Wii Sports.”
Niantic made half a billion dollars off of a single game, but had they invested greater resources into “Pokemon Go,” the app wouldn’t feel like a beta release, or be in the process of going the way of telephone books and mullets; it would be making literal billions.