Pokemon GO News and Rumors: Fans Hope Niantic Takes More People In the US To Test Game

With field tests in the US expected to begin soon, eager Pokemon GO fans are hoping Niantic will be liberal in its intake.

According to users on the Reddit community Sliph Road, Niantic selected 3,000 people in each country including Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Fans are hoping Niantic takes more in the US as the population of the country is large. Some believe the intake would be more as the country's sheer number of gamers would prove a reliable test of the game's servers.

"I've seen people worried that America will only have about 3,000 beta openings because that's what the other countries had, and i don't think that's true simply because of our population. Japan has about 127 million people, NZ has about 4 million, and aus has about 23 million. All while America has 318 million. So I'm pretty sure we are going to get way more than only 3,000 beta slots," wrote one user. Niantic announced invitations for Pokemon GO on May 16.

Niantic, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company announced Pokemon GO last September. However, the game's fielding testing only began earlier this year, starting in Japan followed by Australia and New Zealand. Testers in these countries gave fans their first peek at the game. Details have been revealed about battles, Pokemon spawning, gyms and more but Pokemon trading has not been introduced.

In other Pokemon GO related news, a minor update which includes incense, lucky egg, camera and authentication changes to the login. Testers are reporting these changes as indications for upcoming US field testing.

"There appears to have been an overhaul of the authentication and login system. Our guess is that this is in preparation for the US beta test, where we may see larger numbers of testers joining the beta. Google OAuth appears to be intended, but there are hints that other authentication providers may be employed," a Sliph Road post reads.