Pokemon GO trainers reportedly losing in-game profiles after deleting Peridot accounts

Pokemon GO players are reportedly facing a significant problem that involves their in-game accounts and their ties to Peridot, Niantic's latest title. Per the industry norm, players with accounts in the popular Pocket Monster-catching mobile game can use them for Niantic's other titles. For this reason, those who delete their Peridot account wind up removing data from their Pokemon GO accounts.

This has caused a lot of confusion and discourse among the Pokemon Twitter community.

---

Twitter debates Niantic's account linking, company responds

As previously stated, when signing up for one of Niantic's many mobile games, the account that is created is not exclusive to that one title. Instead, it is more of a unified Niantic account. This is what caused confusion for some unlucky trainers who played Peridot, did not care for it, deleted their accounts in the app, and uninstalled it.

What many users are conflicted about now is whether or not Niantic deserves the blame for players accidentally deleting their Pokemon GO accounts. Though many players are quick to jump on the back of the million-dollar company following their streak of anti-consumer practices, there comes a time when the consumer must accept partial responsibility.

Mobile gaming as an industry is not as simple as many may initially think. This is due to it being much more accessible to people of all ages, with Pokemon GO hosting a much older demographic than many may presume.

With the generational divide, it would be fair to assume that older players of Pokemon GO may not have known that their progress was tied to a Niantic account rather than one exclusive for the mobile game.

Admittedly, Niantic is fully aware that its audience is much more diverse in age groups than that of the main series. For this reason, precautions should have been implemented at the corporate level when it comes to making things as clear as possible. The addition of a disclaimer regarding users' accounts in all the company's titles would have been a good idea.

Niantic has since responded to the confusion, saying:

"Recently, some Peridot Keepers have unlinked their login methods from their Peridot accounts, temporarily removing their ability to log into other games like Pokémon GO. The Niantic Support team has helped these Keepers & Trainers recover access to their Pokémon GO accounts, and we’ve added a safeguard that will preserve at least one non-game-specific login method (e.g., Google, Facebook or Apple login) for players of multiple Niantic games to prevent additional issues."

To avoid mishaps like this from happening, Niantic should add a brief message when players attempt to deactivate their account in one of the company's many titles. This notification would tell users that deleting their account would impact their progress in every Niantic title they have played rather than just the one they are trying to delete.