A group of hackers called PoodleCorp might be responsible for the temporary shut down of Pokemon Go’s servers. The group said on Twitter it was in charge of a DDOS attack that affected players of the Virtual Reality app, although the information has not been confirmed yet.

@PoodleCorp retweeted a message saying that the first attack was “just a little test,” as the group might be planning to conduct a larger hacking attack in the coming weeks. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) can be servers collapse and affect millions of players.

A group of hackers called PoodleCorp might be responsible for the temporary shut down of Pokemon Go’s servers. Photo credit: Captain Clash Gaming
A group of hackers called PoodleCorp might be responsible for the temporary shut down of Pokemon Go’s servers. Photo credit: Captain Clash Gaming

15 million users had already downloaded Pokemon Go by last Wednesday, according to research firm Sensor Tower. The game is generating revenues of up to $1.6 million per day, only from iOS users in the United States.

Nintendo shares surged more than 60 percent last week after Pokemon Go became an immediate hit.  Bloomberg said the company traded $4.5 billion worth of shares on last Friday, surpassing companies such as Tokyo Electric.

On Saturday some players reported having problems to open the app. Users on social media have criticized PoodleCorp’s actions to shut down the game’s servers. The hacking group would be planning to conduct a new attack on August 1, according to a Tweet issued on Sunday.

Axo-o, a member of the hacking group, told Keemstar that they had hacked Youtubers because they like to create chaos.

“Chaos is entertainment, and we like to make people angry,” the hacker said.

Members of the black hat hacking group Lizard Squad may have joined PoodleCorp, Axo-o said Keemstar in a Youtube interview. The hacker said that Pokemon Go players should “find something else to do.” Players of Pokemon Go can check if there is any problem with the game’s servers here.

Pokemon Go is having trouble in Canada after official launch on Sunday

The Pokemon franchise has sold more than 275 million game copies since 1996. Nintendo’s future may radically change after the release of Pokemon Go. Servers of the game collapsed again on Monday after it was officially released in Canada.

Pokemon Go is already available in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and countries in Europe, South America, and Asia. Fans in Canada have complained of game lag and intermittent interruptions, according to VentureBeat.

“Players can discover and catch more than 100 Pokémon from the original Red and Blue games, take Pokémon into battle against other Pokémon at Gyms, uncover items including a variety of types of Poké Balls and eggs at PokéStops, hatch and train new Pokémon, and more,” said Niantic in a statement.

Five thousand people gather around Chicago’s Cloud Gate to play Pokemon Go

More than five thousand people gathered on Sunday at the Millennium Park in Chicago to play Pokemon Go. The event was organized by Sam Guerrero, a 24-year-old technician. He told Techcrunch he only expected a few people to attend the event.

More than 27 thousand people said on Facebook they were interested in attending the meeting. Volunteer Ryan Harvey told Techcrunch that playing Pokemon Go is a unifying act. Fans of the Japanese franchise have already organized meetings in more than 100 places.

The release of Pokemon Go has been postponed in France as a signal of respect. On Thursday last week, the country suffered from a terror attack in Nice that left 84 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

Pokemon Go statistics: people are using the app more than Whatsapp, Instagram, and Snapchat

Similar Web has calculated that engagement rates of Pokemon Go have surpassed popular apps such as Twitter and Snapchat. The site said that 60 percent of people who have downloaded the app in the United States are catching Pokemon every day.

Users of Pokemon Go were using the app 43 minutes per day by July 8. The Facebook’s chatting app Whatsapp is used 30 minutes per day, while Instagram and Snapchat are used 25 and 22 minutes per day, respectively.

Nintendo has not yet announced any plan to develop video games such as Mario for the mobile segment. Market analysts have suggested that the company could change its strategy in the long-term after the immediate success of Pokemon Go.

Seth Fischer, the founder of a hedge fund called Oasis Management, said he had recommended Nintendo to pay attention to smartphones. Oasis Management owns shares in Nintendo but is not described as a dominant investor, as reported by Reuters.

“My next focus with Nintendo is for them to focus on monetizing the rest of their 4,000 patents for mobile gaming, multi-player gaming, et cetera. I think they could be making 30 to 60 billion yen ($290 million to $570 million) annually from licensing,” Fischer told Reuters.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said last year that the Japanese company remains loyal to the development of premium consoles. A Nintendo spokesperson announced last week that apps such as Pokemon Go would help the company to attract new customers to buy Nintendo DS or Wii consoles.

Source: The Independent