Avoid the mistakes that Niantic (the developers of Pokemon Go) made so your next launch goes off smoothly and successfully. Pokemon Go launched on July 6th and in two weeks, got over 30 MILLION downloads. But there were a lot of rocky roads, and angry users. There were many problems that plagued the launch that could have been cleared up if Niantic followed these tips beforehand. For more video game business strategies, join the www.SeriousGameDevsOnly.com community. "New York Pokémon D&P Launch Party" by Rob Brooks is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "Pokemon Jet (Ohana Jumbo & Pikachu Jumbo)" by PROHaseo is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "Pokemon ORAS, Welcome to the Family!" by Adam Purves (S3ISOR) is licensed under CC BY 2.0

1. 3 things to learn from Pokemon
Go's disastrous launch
Learn from Niantic’s mistakes
so your launches go off without a hitch!

2. Pokemon Go didn't have a smooth launch.
[image of angry tweets, reddit, facebook, etc]
Learn from their mistakes!

3. Pokemon Go’s
launch numbers
Downloads in the first 7 days = 10mil+
@PokemonGoApp
1.07m followers
(# as of July 22, 2016.
Official Twitter page)
FB: PokemonGo
323k Likes
(# as of July 22, 2016.
Official Pokemon Go
Facebook page)
/r/PokemonGo
690k subscribers
(# as of July 22, 2016.
Unofficial Subreddit)
Download numbers via Sensor Tower: https://sensortower.com/blog/pokemon-go-download-record
Hashtag count via Wired.UK: (http://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-phenomenal-impact-of-pokemon-go-in-data))
Hashtag Count:
5,982,616,734
(For #PokemonGo -
the count in the first
week!)

4. Niantic, the developer of Pokemon Go,
was not prepared for the rush.

5. Fortunately, the Pokemon franchise has over 20 years of
branding power, confidence, and goodwill behind it.
Even with major launch problems, die-hard fans still
supported them.
This kept
happening.

6. Lots of games and side-games
in the series.
And a freakin’ airplane.Community events and
memorable characters.

7. If this was ANY other product, this
would be unacceptable.
(Boy -- that Pokemon Airplane looked
pretty cool!)

8. A failed launch can
destroy your years of
hard work and even ruin
your reputation.

9. So what can you learn from Pokemon Go's
disastrous launch to use for your own launches?

10. TIP #1:
Release your
product in a
controlled environment.
(A soft launch)

11. Pokemon Go Launched to 2 territories (U.S and
Australia)
Pokemon X/Y
sales (2014)
15 million units
Smartphone
ownership in
Australia
15.4 million
users
Smartphone
ownership in the
U.S.
171 million
users
Sales information from: https://www.nintendo.co.
jp/ir/en/sales/software/3ds.html

12. Niantic failed to predict how many users would
download the game. That lead to --
Via http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2016/07/09/canada-europe-uk-south-america-pokemon-go-international-release-paused-for-server-problems/#72a39cb5736a

13. Soft launches allow you to control your reach
to see what potential kinks that can happen.
Soft launching allows you to:
● Test systems and server infrastructure
● Gather usage data
● Find and fix bugs and errors
● Receive feedback from early users

14. Video game soft launch Examples:
King of Thieves (iOS and Android)
Official Launch on Android: March 2015
Official Launch on iOS: Feb 12, 2015
Soft Launch: Sept 2014 (Soft launched
under the title ‘Thieves’ in Canada)
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/61122/soft-launch-your-game-as-soon-as-possible/
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/feature/60621/36-top-games-in-soft-launch-from-rabbids-heroes-and-plants-vs-zombies-
heroes-to-dc-comics-legends-and-breaking-bad/list/
WWE: Champions
Official Launch on Android/iOS: TBA 2016
Soft Launch: Dec 2015 (Soft launched in
Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Romania, Sweden)

15. Candy is tested in local markets before
released nationally.
Movie goers are given private
screenings before major releases.
TV shows create a pilot before TV execs
greenlight a full season.
Other industries who use soft launches:

16. TIP #2
Transparency goes
a long way.

17. Pokemon Go had a
number of problems.

18. The official accounts left vague messages about the issues.
12 tweets in 14 days. (Not counting retweets. From Launch to July 21)
@NianticLabs, the twitter account of the developers, was equally quiet.
Even their change logs were vague.
531 angry emojis, 221 sad emojis. Ignoring all of the ‘please bring
Pokemon Go to my country’ comments, the next highest comments are
about server issues.

19. A fan-made PokemonGo twitter account, providing updates and engaging
tweets. 521 tweets in 14 days. (Not counting retweets. From Launch to July 21)
Downdetector.com was letting users know if the game was really
broken, or if it was just them.
Third-party accounts had to fill in the gap.
Since there was no official messages, video game news blogs became the go-to source for updates.

20. Be transparent by keeping
users in the loop with what
happened, next steps, and a
rough idea of things to come.
Customers will be far more forgiving of
mistakes if a company has a history of being
forthright with all interactions -- not just the
negative ones.
”
“
Robert Craven, CEO of Megafoods
Via https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244474

21. When Help Scout, (a help
desk software for small
businesses) had an outage,
they preemptively emailed
their entire customer base
with this email.
How Help Scout does it

22. How Workflowy does it + Customer Feedback
Workflowy (a cloud-based
organizational tool) was having
server issues for over 3 days.
This was their message.
The post is here: https://blog.workflowy.
com/2016/07/19/the-explanation-for-our-recent-
downtime/

23. And the feedback from Workflowy customers.

24. TIP #3:
Be prepared
with crowd control.

25. Niantic missed a big opportunity to keep players in
the conversation, instead opting in for the military-
esque ‘need to know’ information.
Via AppAnnie -- https://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/pokemon-go/details/
Pokemon Go's iTune Store
Update page log

26. The Pokemon Go fanbase felt unheard.

27. Without any official information, users expressed
their anger in different ways.

28. And no official word from
anybody on the Niantic
team.
*Cough* They could have used a community manager.

29. A community manager or
face of the company that can help
with communications.
The benefits of someone in charge of crowd control:
• They can stomp out rumors before they spread.
• They can discover problems immediately and
inform the team.
• They can keep customers in the loop.
They can even turn boring updates into positive stories,
making customers feel like the hero.

30. Blizzard (developers of World of
Warcraft, Hearthstone, and
Overwatch) are legendary for
keeping their fans in the know.
Via: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4dggt0/awesome_blizzard_support_made_my_day/
They provides in-depth change logs, reasons for
specific update to their games, and even engage in
friendly camaraderie while providing support.

31. Having someone who can provide support can go a
long way.
Via https://www.shopify.com/blog/6992318-4-examples-of-excellent-customer-service-on-facebook

32. To go through these tips again :
TIP #1 - Testing it in a small area (a soft launch)
TIP #2 – Transparency goes a long way
TIP #3 - Be prepared with crowd control

33. Rocky Kev
Founder of Serious Game Devs Only
SeriousGameDevsOnly.com
Twitter: @rockykev

34. For more marketing strategies, audience building strategies, and PR strategies
specific to game development, Join the Serious Game Developers Only community --
For devs who treat game development like a business.
Want more?
Get additional resources and bonuses so you can launch successfully at: SeriousGameDevsOnly.
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