So Niantic pushed back the Pokemon Go Plus this week. The little clip-on wristband thing that was supposed to ship alongside the game back on July 6th is now not showing up until September, no specific date given, just "September." Thirty five bucks, one button, a single LED light, and a vibration motor. That's basically the whole spec sheet, and now I have to wait another month and a half for mine.
I preordered it back in early June like an idiot, before the game had even launched, before I had any idea whether Pokemon Go was going to be a fun weekend fad or the thing that ate my entire July. Turns out it ate my entire July. I've walked something like eleven miles this week just wandering my own neighborhood at 10pm looking for a Vaporeon that supposedly spawned near the elementary school two blocks over. Did not find the Vaporeon. Found a Zubat. Found four more Zubats after that one, which I did not need, thanks.
Anyway, the Plus is delayed and honestly? I've made my peace with it faster than I expected to.
Here's the thing nobody really mentions when they cover this announcement: the reason people want the Plus isn't convenience so much as it is battery life. The app chews through a full charge in under two hours if you've got the AR camera view on and the screen lit the whole walk. I've started keeping my phone in my pocket, screen off, between catches just so I don't end a walk at 40 percent, and even then it's rough going. A little wristband that buzzes when something's nearby, so you don't need the app open and the screen lit the entire time, would fix basically all of that. Which is exactly why I'm annoyed it's delayed, and also exactly why I suspect the servers needed the extra time more than the hardware did.
Because let's be real about the actual bottleneck. The servers have been falling over pretty regularly since launch weekend. I've had the app just spin on "Failed to authenticate" often enough this week that I started keeping a second app open on the other phone just to have something to do while I wait for Pokemon Go to remember I exist. If GO Plus ships to a few million people who are already straining a backend that can barely handle the current load, you're adding a constant second stream of activity, spinning stops, throwing balls, from a device that doesn't even show you what's happening on screen. Seems like a good way to make an already shaky launch worse. So fine, September it is. Fix the login queue first, worry about the wristband later.
I will say the timing is a little funny to me. This is the exact week Comic-Con is happening down in San Diego, wall to wall costumes and panels, every studio trying to squeeze a headline out of the weekend, and Niantic's headline is "the accessory we hyped up back in the spring is not ready yet." Not exactly the splashy summer moment you'd script for a game that's already the biggest thing in the App Store two weeks running. Though I guess when your product is that dominant you don't really need the extra hype. You need working authentication servers more than you need a keynote.
Small aside because I can't help myself: the AR toggle is still, in my opinion, the worst part of the whole app. Everybody posts the screenshots with the little cartoon Squirtle sitting on their kitchen counter like it's magic, and it's cute for exactly one photo, and then it's just a battery drain and a worse aiming mechanism for the rest of the session. I turn it off within the first five minutes every single time and I genuinely don't understand the people who leave it on for an entire evening of walking. Your phone is going to be dead by 9pm and your aim is going to be worse. Both things are true.
My preorder confirmation email just says September now instead of "coming soon," so I guess I'll keep doing the screen off pocket walk for a while longer. If anyone actually finds that Vaporeon by the elementary school, I want to hear about it. Leave a comment or whatever, I still read every one of them. Almost five years of doing this and it's apparently still a two way street.