June 16 gym closure purely a rumor?
Well, it approaches 11 pm on the US east coast and as far as I can tell, gyms are still up and running. Other than Niantic's website saying it's happening "soon" nothing is happening. I guess gyms still might close at midnight west coast (Niantic headquarters) time in about 4 hours, but I kind of doubt it. So, what happens now, other than business as usual? Any theories on when the gyms actually will close and for how long?
Answers
Yeah, well that is the thing about capitalism...if you don't have any competition, there is no point in having customer service...just ask the cable companies here in the US...Until people start quitting in high numbers because of their poor communication skills, no reason for them to change.
But hey, who am I to judge their business practices? I mean I personally think I could do better, but they are the ones making millions off of it...
Well since Niantic never officially said the 16th, I wasn't really expecting it; but could still happen like you said.
But my guess is they are looking at how long it will take to complete the gym rework once they're disabled. So they complete it and begin the roll out of the update Wednesday (June 21 and official start of summer). That way it still keeps their word: Gym rework update coming, major update during the 2nd quarter of the year, and as they said "coming this summer".
So I don't know exactly when the gyms will be disabled, but guessing it will be so they are back up and running and the update rolled out for the first day of summer
The fact that it is posted on their website that gyms will be disabled, leads me to believe it will be sooner rather than later. I guess the question is, does it make more sense for them to do it on a Friday or Monday? I think a Monday would make more sense because they don't strike me as a company that is going to be working on the weekends...
This is a very Niantic's way of making things, I am totally with you. The day was gonna be the 16th for sure, but because it was leaked by mistake on the Italian announcement they decided to change it just to make people talk about it again in forums, YT vids, articles, etc...
They should focus their efforts in other things than this, what is the point of hide everything from your customers, even something like this than can screw a lot of people coins of that particular day? Just say a clear day and hour so everyone can go out and claim their coins before gyms are down, or plan their actions if the time is still somedays in the future. This is a no sense at all.
And also give players coins and dust for every day gyms are down, care about them for a time, even to players that can't access gyms regularly, give for example 20 coins and 2k dust to every player for each 24h that gyms are down, the amount is low enough and you at least show you care about your players not able to keep playing as normally. This is what any other good & big company would do, we know Niantic is not one of course.
Actually, it doesn't say that...It says exactly:
http://pokemongolive.com/en/post/anniversary2017
"To kick things off, we will be hosting the Solstice Event starting on June 13, 2017. This in-game event will feature Fire-type and Ice-type Pokémon, huge XP bonuses for throwing Poké Balls accurately, and discounted Lucky Eggs in the in-game shop. Soon thereafter, you can look forward to a new update focused on collaborative group gameplay features that will get you playing Pokémon GO in fun new ways. In preparation for these exciting features, we’ll be temporarily disabling Gyms for a short period of time."
All I read from that is there will be collaborative group gameplay shortly thereafter (probably after event).
The gym disabling comment, my guess from reading it will still be done BEFORE the event ends and could've actually happened when the event started (now, I'm guessing today (SAT) or Monday since they probably need to push all the updates before turning it on for everyone...(to not let anyone get a headstart).
I suppose another gym run today then...Now, I need another 12 hours before collecting again...
