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Pokemon Masters arrived on iOS and Android back in August, and while the game quickly raked in a lot of money, it has also been plagued by numerous issues. Developer DeNA rolled out an update earlier this week that addressed some of these and included free Gems as a makegood for the delay, and now producer Yu Sasaki has opened up about the state of the game and what the development team will be working to improve moving forward.
In a candid message shared on the official Pokemon Masters website, Sasaki acknowledges the issues that have been affecting the game and players’ dissatisfaction with how DeNA has gone about resolving them. Sasaki promises the development team will address bugs more quickly and transparently:
“First, as you know, there have been bugs and other issues that have impaired your enjoyment of this game. Some of the feedback we received was regarding which bugs we prioritized fixing first and how quickly we were able to fix them. We fully understand and appreciate these concerns as it’s not our intention to provide a poor user experience. Rather, our focus was on fixing any bug that affected game mechanics or progression first. Moving forward, we will carefully prioritize critical issues and their potential solutions. We will also redouble our efforts to address issues in a timely fashion as our team continues to streamline its operational process.”
Sasaki also acknowledges player complaints that there isn’t enough content in the game. “Our original plan was to have players progressing through the main story while at the same time tackling co-op challenges and EX Challenges throughout September and October,” Sasaki said. “That said, we understand players have quickly progressed through all available content and feel dissatisfied with the current offerings. As fans ourselves, we also feel a great sense of urgency to provide more quality content for players to enjoy. We’re working hard to address this as soon as possible.”
Sasaki says the development team is currently focusing on improving four specific aspects of the game: the lack of content, the lack of “appealing rewards,” the game’s difficulty, and its “poor usability.” Sasaki says the team can address the second area “relatively quickly” and tells fans to “look forward to updates in the near future.” Regarding the other three areas, Sasaki says “these issues will take time to fully address, but we will be sure to keep players updated about our progress.”
Sasaki closes the message by saying, “We’re disappointed we did not meet the expectations of our community, and for this, we sincerely apologize. It’s our intention that this does not happen again. Hearing these opinions from fellow Trainers has deepened our sense of commitment to deliver a game we can all be proud of.”
As previously mentioned, DeNA is offering 1,000 Gems for free to all players from now until November 7. For more on the game, be sure check out our roundup of everything you need to know about Pokemon Masters. We’ve also broken down what Scout Points are and how to get them, as well as how to evolve and Mega Evolve Pokemon in the game.
