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TECHNOLOGY A23
‘Pokemon Go’ or no? Fans glad Niantic addressing complaints
MARINA VILLENEUVE
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) —
Few games have enjoyed
both the meteoric rise —
and subsequent fall — in
popularity as “Pokemon
Go.”
But the game remains prof-
itable, and people are still
playing even if they aren’t
the same masses that
roamed parks last summer
with eyes glued to smart-
phones, looking for elusive
virtual monsters from their
childhood to appear right
in front of them.
“It kind of brings people
together to have a con-
versation about these little
cartoon characters that
we’re all in love with,” said mon Go” is no passing fad.
Brian Swain, a sales repre-
sentative for Rockstar en-
ergy drink who has stuck
with “Pokemon Go” since it
launched last July.
While past its heyday last
summer, when some small
businesses and landmarks
had complained of disrup-
tive crowds,
the game has seen re-
newed interest after last
month’s addition of 80
Pokemon and in-game
events set around holidays
like Halloween and soon,
Easter.
Uber self-driving cars are
coming back to California roads
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)
— Uber’s self-driving cars
will return to California’s
streets, though the ride-
hailing company doesn’t
immediately plan to pick
up passengers.
Uber received a permit
Wednesday to test two
Volvo SUVs on public roads,
the California Department
of Motor Vehicles said.
Regulators also approved
48 people as backup driv-
ers who must sit behind
the wheel in case the pro-
totype cars malfunction,
agency spokeswoman Jes-
sica Gonzalez said.
The permit resolves a con-
flict dating to December.
That’s when Uber — an
aggressive player in the
The updates addressed
complaints about a lack of
updates that contributed
to a drop in monthly active
users, according to app
market analyst Apptopia.
“Over time, the enthusiasm
has waned, but there’s
still quite a bit of people
playing it,” said Joost van
Dreunen, the CEO and
founder of SuperData Re-
search in New York. “It
raises the question: Was it
a fad, a thing we only did
one time for one game, or
is it going to hold people’s
attention longer?”
The game had generated
$1 billion in revenue as of
January, and Niantic CEO
John Hanke insists “Poke-
The game — whose servers
had difficulty handling traf-
fic last summer — will fulfill
long-promised additions of
sought-after “legendary”
Pokemon and the ability
for players to battle and
trade with each other, he
said.
“What happened last
summer was really kind of
strange, where ‘Pokemon
Go’ spiraled out of con-
trol to this level of cultural
awareness that nobody ex-
pected, certainly not us,”
Hanke said. The “extremely
self-driving race to bring
the technology to the mar-
ket — rolled out a pilot pro-
gram in San Francisco, its
hometown.
The DMV revoked the regis-
trations for 16 Uber vehicles, a few self-driving Uber SUVs
shutting down the test.
Uber knew about the DMV’s
requirement to receive
permission before testing
in public, but the company
argued that its cars do not
meet the state’s definition
of an “autonomous ve-
hicle” because they need
a person to monitor them
and intervene if needed.
That argument raised eye-
brows both among regula-
tors and other companies
with similar technology that
did get permits.
In this July 12, 2016, file photo, Doduo, a Pokemon, is found by there are signs of new life.
a group of Pokemon Go players using a smartphone, at Bay-
front Park in downtown Miami.
successful” game now has
usage “at a more normal
level,” he said.
The hard-to-replicate
game still has an enviable
following in Japan, Chi-
na, Korea as well as North
America, Dreunen said.
Since the game’s release,
The pilot program caught
the state — and San Fran-
cisco city officials — off
guard.
Amid a showdown that last
several days, during which
did not stop for red lights,
state prosecutors threat-
ened to haul Uber before a
judge if the service was not
suspended immediately.
Uber responded by pack-
ing up its cars for Arizona,
where it began picking up
passengers last month.
Uber said in a statement
Wednesday that it does not
plan to ferry paying pas-
sengers for now, as it does
in Pittsburgh and a Phoenix
suburb.
The company did not say
Associated Press
Dreunen said, the $40.6
billion worldwide mobile
game industry has be-
come flooded, and invest-
ment may shift to mobile
games that rely on well-
loved characters and pro-
vide frequent updates.
As spring approaches,
In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, an Uber driverless car heads out
for a test drive in San Francisco.
when the two Volvos would
be driving on California
roads.
With the approval, Uber
Friday 10 March 2017
Milwaukee County has
prepared for “Pokemon
Go” and future augment-
ed-reality games by re-
quiring game developers
to obtain a permit to get
players into parks.
In Maine, members of the
“Pokemon Go” 207 Face-
book group have no-
ticed more screenshots
from players taking up the
game again.
Nick Fournier, a 21-year-
old media studies student
at the University of South-
ern Maine, said he’s glad
the company has finally
begun listening to players’
complaints.
He described last summer
as a phenomenon brought
on by the game’s nostalgia
and the technology’s nov-
elty that he doesn’t expect
to see again.
Erin Morrison, a 23-year-
old schoolteacher living in
Greene, Maine, said she
has kept playing through a
dreary winter by driving to
places she knew had mul-
tiple spots to catch Poke-
mon.
“With the new update, it’s
been so awesome,” she
said. “I’m seeing so many
people coming back
out.”q
Associated Press
becomes the 26th com-
pany to have a self-driv-
ing car testing permit in
California.q