Back when Nintendo and Niantic first announced Pokemon Go, they unveiled a special peripheral that would work in tandem with the app. The Pokemon Go Plus is a small device shaped like a map marker from the game. You tie it around your wrist and it tells you when Pokemon and Poke Stops are near by vibrating and flashing its little light. This saves you from having to keep your smartphone running the app all the time.
Obviously the second this gets released it’ll be sold out, and having lived through similar experiences with the Wii and the initial amiibo launch, Nintendo wants to be prepared. So the release of Pokemon Go Plus has been delayed into September.
But it might not be for the reason you’d think. When prodded by Polygon for specific answers, Nintendo told them the main reason for the delay was to ensure maximum compatibility with Niantic’s app.
“The delay is due to the preparations for the Pokémon Go application update in order to optimize Pokémon Go Plus,” Nintendo told them. “In order for us to offer new experiences to play Pokémon Go with Pokémon Go Plus with a quality level high enough to satisfy as many people as possible, we decided that it is necessary to take enough time for the completion. We ask for your understanding.”
This most likely means the Plus is still showing bugs in testing, which isn’t surprising, given the number of glitches still remaining in Niantic’s app. Niantic said during their SDCC panel that they’re working overtime to iron every last bug out of the game. Once the peripheral and the app are playing nice, we should get a specific release date.
But for Nintendo’s sake, I sure hope they’re also taking this time to order extra shipments.
