Niantic respond as Pokemon Go servers threaten Turtwig Spotlight Hour

Pokemon Go Spotlight Hour is a time of the week trainers won’t often miss, with the chance to catch a specific Pokemon due to increased spawn rates. However, Niantic has responded after Turtwig’s was nearly ruined by server problems. 

As the name suggests, the Spotlight Hour lasts for just 60 minutes. With a higher chance of catching a specific Pokemon each week comes the opportunity to snag some Shiny Pokemon as well if you’re lucky.

However, on November 16, players of Niantic’s mobile game – available on iOS and Android devices – were left stunned as the servers collapsed mid-event.

Just when Turtwig was about to start spawning like it never has before, some trainers were unable to access it.

Pokemon Go Nov 16 Spotlight Hour ruined

A message appeared on-screen for those affected, stating: “Unable to authenticate. Please try again.”

The issues have been raised by multiple members of the community over on Reddit, posting to the Pokemon Go page.

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One said: “I was in the middle of catching a Cresselia,” when the servers went down. Another posted: “I’ve literally gotten into the habit of this every time one of my games crashes I check the social media posts to make sure that I’m not the only one and nine times out of 10 it’s not just me.”

As seen above, some have even joked that Giovanni – who has returned to the game this November – is behind the problem, taking his revenge for people beating him in-game.

Niantic respond

On Twitter, Niantic had flagged the problem, though it looks like by the time it was fixed, the short window of opportunity had closed.

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They posted: “We’re investigating the current downtime across Niantic apps. We apologize for the inconvenience, and will update here when we have more information.”

It appears that the problem was affecting all Niantic apps, not just Pokemon Go.

There is no word on whether or not the event will be re-done at another date, which is something players had called for on social media.