There is nothing they can do without borking and ruining the game design for everyone.
As someone with physical and neurological disabilities, you can't make everything accessible to everyone, it's just not possible.
(Yes I have motor skill issues).
I mean people who are unable to move on their own are up in arms because Pokemon Go doesn't allow them to find Pokemon and items while not moving.
Also Nintendo didn't develop Pokemon Go, just like they don't develop the main Pokemon games and most Pokemon Spin offs.
Niantic is the developer and publisher, Nintendo just licensed the Pokemon trademarks, copyrights and characters, the Pokemon Company
Though when the servers are being overloaded or being wonky, it effects how Pokeballs work.
Give it a few days in the UK to find out how much of it is the servers.
You can try using Pokemon Go Plus, which makes catching Pokemon easier and requires a press of a button.
This is will run you $35 or whatever UK price is later this July.
Part of the reason why this product exist is to make it easier for those with motor skills to play the game and for those who are obsessed with it and don't want to kill their phones.
U.S, Canadian, UK and EU laws all use the same basic reasons for suing a company due to disabilities:
- Is the product necessary for you to function in life?
- Did the company make it quite clear what was needed to use the product?
- Is it an undo burden for the company to make it accessible for that disability?
- Would making it accessible for that disability ruin it for everyone else?
- Is the product able to be made accessible?
- If not #5, why?
- Is there an accessory you can buy?
The answers to the legal reason are:
- It's not necessary for you to have to live your life and it costs nothing to obtain and use. Since you didn't pay anything for it. you are going to have a very hard time proving the rest.
- Niantic, Nintendo, and TPCi made it clear exactly what you needed to do to use the game for months now, with a huge demonstration at E3 in June. They even unveiled the above accessory
- Yes it's very hard for Niantic to make the game accessible to those with motor skills issues and walking disabilities, since the game relies on touchscreens and geodata to work.
- Yes, making the game accessible if possible, would literally run the game for everyone killing it dead for the masses. Once the option was implemented, it would be accessible for everyone, especially hackable on Android.
- No the product is not able to made accessible for everyone due to the natures of touchscreens and the OSes they run on.
- No one has found out away to make touchscreens accessible for those with motor skills issues.
- There is an accessory you can buy for $35 American in late July....
Yeah you don't have any legal grounds because mainly it's free, costing you ZERO and well it requires touchscreens which no one has found away to make them accessible to those with motor skills issues.
Since Niantic, Nintendo and TPCi made it very clear what you needed to do to play the game in all the material and press events.
If they could make it accessible, here's why it would bork the game:
- It is supposed to be challenging to throw the Pokeballs to capture the Pokemon, thus making sure you have to try to catch the Pokemon by flicking accordingly... This makes it fair to everyone.
- You get ball bonuses based on how well you threw the ball, you are rewarded for being good at throwing.
- Excellent/Perfect throw/catch is +100EXP
- Great +50EXP
- Nice is +20 EXP
- Good is +10 EXP
- Curve ball is +10 EXP
- EXP is required to level up your trainer, which unlocks items and higher CP Pokemon.
- Touchscreen motions are also needed to fight at gyms
There is also legal precedent set in video, computer and mobile games from prior lawsuits:
- Nintendo was sued over their NES in the 1980s by people who couldn't fully play due to motor skills issues. Nintendo won in the U.S. and Europe because the product was entertainment and there was very little Nintendo could do to make it accessible
- Nintendo was sued by the color blind people in 1990s, claiming they couldn't fully play their games because they couldn't see colors and demanded that Nintendo do something to make it playable for those who couldn't see colors. Nintendo one for the same reason as above.
- Nintendo was sued in the late 90s after people with disabilities sued them because they didn't have the motor skills needed to play games using analog sticks. Again Nintendo won
- Nintendo was sued over the original Pokemon games because it didn't accommodate those who had disabilities preventing them from reading properly. Nintendo won
- Nintendo was sued in the early 2000s over Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire couldn't be played by children who didn't know how to read yet... Nintendo Won
- Nintendo was sued over DS because people with disabilities couldn't use the system due to the stylus due to motor skills issues. Nintendo Won
- Nintendo was sued over Wii by people with disabilities because they couldn't use motion controls. Nintendo Won
- Sony was sued over PS2 by people with disabilities who couldn't use dual analog controls due to motor skills issues. Sony won.
- People also sued the makers of Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Facebook, and others because they claimed they couldn't use the software due to disabilities. So no one has successfully sued a mobile developer on grounds of discrimination against the disabled
Lawsuits that Video game companies have lost:
- Nintendo lost a lawsuit in 2004 in the U.S. after a kid had a seizure playing Gamecube. The parents won, because they claim Nintendo didn't provide adequate health warning on the package and adequate health warning in the games. Nintendo was ordered to put better health warnings on their packages and in their games. That is also why Wii and DS have health warnings at boot up that you cannot skip. It only effects Nintendo.
- Nintendo has agreed to government rules to prevent lawsuits and investigation on Swapnote 3DS after Pedophiles used it to exchange pictures with minors. The U.S., EU and Japan threatened a massive public investigation on why Nintendo allowed children to exchange picture with pedophiles on Swapnote and why they didn't put more safeguards in place to protect the children. Nintendo took down the servers in response.
- Nintendo purposely never made a successor to DS's pictochat after they were sued and governments threatened investigations on why children were allowed to communicate with strangers on it.
- Nintendo is also fighting EU and U.S. regulators regarding the lack of safeguards for Children on the Nintendo Network (their online gaming service for Wii U and their next system NX).
- Nintendo was also forced to put warnings on 3DS system and games due to the 3D effect harming children.
Microsoft, Sega and Sony have been spared the same legal troubles with their systems.
As for PC and Smartphones:
- Microsoft was sued in the 90s because people with disabilities sued them because they claimed that using a mouse and keyboard to operate Windows and it's software made PCs unusable. Microsoft won, though had to agree to add disability options to Windows when the technology became available.
- Apple was sued by people with disabilities numerous times because they claimed the touchscreens on iOS devices made the devices unfairly unusable and Apple won all the cases.
- Apple did eventually add accessibility options to iOS, but they were sued again by people with disabilities that it didn't fix the issues with touchscreen inputs... Apple won, because there is nothing they can do for people who can't use touchscreen for whatever reasons.
In short there isn't much you can do legally, but you can try.
Actually I want to see you file suit, just to see the public reaction and those of gamers online.
I mean someone with disabilities actually sued the U.S. Government because they were denied entry into the military because of their disabilities. Obviously the person lost, but they claimed the U.S. military should be made accessible to those with disabilities.
People have also sued the NFL, NBA, PGA, NASCAR and other sports leagues because they were denied entry due to their disabilities and demanded that the sports leagues make the games accessible for those with disabilities who wanted to play.
As person with multiple disabilities, I accept the fact not everything can be made accessible to everyone.
