The success of “Pokemon Go ‘threatens to collapse their servers – Union of Morelos

The game has suffered connection problems and performance since its launch due to the large number of users playing at the same time

on Friday at 11 pm in Central Park, New York (United States), dozens of people ran into the park, leaving their vehicles on the road without looking back. The reason was none other than the appearance of a Vaporeon, a special Pokémon and very difficult to achieve on site. An image that perfectly represents the fever has broken out in the real world to hunt these creatures in the virtual world. This flood of arrivals-and players around the world is in more than thirty countries-it has caused somewhat predictable: the fall of Pokemon Go servers. Game servers developer, Niantic, of not been able to withstand more than 21 million users who want to enter the application at the same time. A record number in the United States has already passed in use Instagram or WhatsApp. And all in just 10 days.

“Niantic is now a big problem that must be addressed. Or, start by installing new servers or devises a strategy to accumulate users without these saturating “explains Alfonso Gomez, director of Fun & amp; Serious Game Festival, one of the most important gaming events in Europe. The first solution has the complication that must enable these servers in physical points where the developer puts the computers that process information; so it is slower and more complex, because it can not be done on a large scale.

Also, keep in mind, says Gomez, who Niantic which left Alphabet, the mother of Google company, the last year is not a big company or multinational, like other large developers like Electronic Arts or Activation. So, to address these problems has a team of hundreds of people. “At the end Nintendo will have to go deal with this crisis and support all its major Niantic, because this game is its big bet where stakes its brand image and its great franchise: Pokémon,” says Gomez.

Success by surprise

the lack of continuous connection has led to hundreds of complaints from users who have torched social networks. To the extent that the company has been forced to make several statements on its official Twitter profile to calm things down. In all of these claims to be working on improving the overall performance of the game. Demonstrating one of the theories most discussed among experts and users: the success of Pokémon Go Niantic has caught by surprise. “Neither the company itself the brutal reception given the game all over the world are expected mainly brought about by so great eltarget of audience you have arrived. From young to older,” Gomez said.

When the mobile game came to the United States, July 8, just after New Zealand and Australia, the first connection problems were detected, Niantic delayed the overall output of the game for fear of a collapse. However, the staggered release has not yielded the expected results. The phenomenon Fanha have even more.

In Spain, where it was launched on July 15, while in Italy and Portugal, has suffered operational problems and connection from virtually the same day of its release . These drawbacks were increased throughout the weekend: on Saturday and Sunday the game was offline for more than four hours and repeatedly. Some supporters suggest that can be because Saturday was the date of disembarkation of the game in almost all the European continent could officially download in 25 countries. The lack of connection Sunday blamed on the arrival of the players from Canada. But, without going into hypothesis, the result is clear: the experience of playing Pokémon Go is far from smooth and continuous. Strikes and forced closures session have become a common technique of the game.

Since last July 12, DatacenterDynamics, a company specializing in the business of data centers publication warned that Google Cloud, the infrastructure that is Pokémon Go, was under a very strong burden because of new video game. One reason for this is that the game requires permanent connection to their servers to always keep updated the positioning of the elements of the game on the map. To be offline, or not having a constant connection, the player could not, for example, capture Pokémon while his friends.

With all these parameters into play, Niantic now faces a challenge : absorb all your traffic levels without losing followers. The need to find a balance between geographically expand in phases (thus ensuring the sustainability of technical service) and attempting to maximize the success of Pokémon viral unconscionable Go before the wave of fashion begins to lose strength. Achieving this balance can mean triumph or debacle of the game and its developers.

“Niantic now has to demonstrate it is capable of maintaining a long-term success, as they got other mobile games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, or whether to become a fashion day” says Gomez. This expert locates several factors that can facilitate the arrival of Pokémon to stay: the Pokémon brand, ease of play from the mobile, the novelty of interaction with the real world and its new emerging narrative that allows you to build the story that the user wants.

‘Pokémon Go’, target of hackers

Two hacker groups have claimed responsibility for the fall of the servers, although the company has not confirmed to be true. One of them, Poodle Corp has said through Twitter to be the culprit, while OurMine has done through a statement on its website.

The latter group is known for cybercriminals hack into the accounts of technology leaders and celebrities. Some of the latest accounts were kidnapped were those of Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, whom the group took advantage of a security breach related accounts (Vine and Quora, respectively).

In its statement, the hacker group threatened to not stop launching attacks until representatives of the video game they contact with them: “No one can more play this game until Pokémon Go contact us our website to teach them how to protect themselves “. OurMine has emphasized that the aim of these attacks is to contribute to the security of mobile video game.

Pokémon Go and more than 20 million users around the world can become a major target of these groups of cybercriminals due to the huge amount of emails and recorded in its database users. One aspect that could have become even more problematic when the game required full access to Google data Player to register. These permissions are changed after one week after complaints from experts and users.