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Pokefans petition Niantic to make Pokemon Go compatible with Intel Atom chips
In case you’re some sort of future internet archaeologist who has come across this article without any social context – or perhaps a person just waking up from a coma – Pokemon Go is the augmented reality smash hit from Niantic, the company that brought us Ingress. Over the weekend, Pokemon Go became one of the most popular mobile games in the world, and it’s still not available in many major reasons. Unfortunately, if you’re running a smartphone with Intel inside, you might be left on the Pokebench.
It’s coming to light that Pokemon Go isn’t compatible with phones powered by Atom chips such as the ASUS Zenfone 2. Distressed users immediately took to Change.org to make their plea for Niantic to make the game compatible with Intel-powered devices. At time of writing, over 24,500 signers have slapped their names to this petition, putting them within easy reach of their 25,000 goal.
So far, Niantic has not responded to this appeal. The problem comes from Intel’s decision to begin phasing themselves out of the mobile market. The company has seen consistently that they aren’t going to be able to compete with ARM, and they’ve elected to pull out and focus on their strong points rather than expend effort in a floundering area of business. Although Atom chips are gradually disappearing from the market, there are still a fair number of users who are distressed that their choice of smartphone has prevented them from hitting Route 1 with Pokeballs in hand.
Their voices of outcry join with those from Windows smartphone users. Although iOS users and most Android users are out there on their way to becoming the very best like no one ever was, Niantic has made it clear that they aren’t interested in bringing their game to the Windows mobile OS for the time being.
What are your thoughts regarding Pokemon Go’s incompatibility with Intel chips? Is this an issue that affects you? If so, sound off in the comments and head over to Change.org to sign the petition.
