Niantic CTO Phil Keslin today posted on Niantic’s official blog, praising Google for its Cloud Platform and support during Pokemon GO’s soaring popularity. According to Keslin, Google and Niantic worked hand-in-hand to manage the game’s unexpected server demands, as well as when it came time to issue hotfixes to squash game bugs. Apparently, Niantic officials expected the game to draw millions of simultaneous players, but they weren’t prepared for 500 million players to download Pokemon GO. As a result, Google supplied support to keep up with the game’s demand, and ultimately helped to stabilize the servers after players experienced massive server outages.

Although many gamers were frustrated by the game’s downtime, based on this information, it could have been a lot worse. After all, Niantic had prior experience in augmented reality real world games with its Ingress title, and Google was there to provide its expertise. Had Niantic been a first-time developer to this genre of gaming and hadn’t had the backing of a company that’s accustomed to receiving billions of hits per day, gamers might still be slogging through Pokemon GO server crashes and unexpected downtime to this day.

At this point, Niantic and Google would probably be happy to see the game’s userbase creating major server strain again. The title has seen a tremendous drop off in overall users as well as paying users, despite the fact that recent updates have added new features like the Pokemon Buddy system and refreshed Pokemon nests. Despite those changes and the recent release of the Pokemon GO Plus device, the game unfortunately hasn’t bounced back to where it was when it initially released.

There’s no way to know for sure if Pokemon GO will ever explode in popularity the same way it did when it first became available. However, it’s good to know that if it ever does, Google and Niantic will be ready for it this time around, and the game shouldn’t experience the tremendous downtime it initially did if that ever happens.

Check out our helpful Pokémon GO guides:

Every Way to Earn Experience Points How to Win Battles How to Become a Gym Leader How to Get Pokecoins How to Catch Pikachu as a Starter How to Use and Hatch Eggs How to Catch Rare Pokemon How to Use Pokestops How to Control Eevee’s Evolution Trainer Rewards at Every Level How to Hold Gyms Longer Where to Find Specific Pokemon How to Trigger Pokemon Spawns Every Type’s Strengths and Weaknesses Catching Region Exclusive Pokemon

Pokemon GO is out now for Android and iOS devices.

Source: Niantic