On March 8th, Reversal tipped us off about an interesting PokéStop phenomena that’s taking place on a regular basis in Netherlands: certain PokéStops are closed during night time! Today, we’ve received more details about the issue.
Closed PokeStops feature dark blue coloration and read “This PokeStop is currently closed” when players try to interact with it, refusing to give any loot. PokeStops become fully functional once they change their color changes back to ordinary PokeStop shade of light blue.
Reversal tweeted the following images as evidence:
Dark Blue PokéStops are closed during the night. You are also unable to tap on gyms that are closed top.#PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/tIbs8FNOzr
— REVERSAL (@REVERSALx7) March 20, 2018
The PokéStop in question is tied to a wine museum and follows the day and night cycle, closing down roughly around the time the museum closes.
Pokemon Master Holly reported observing a similar thing in Orlando back in February:
I've seen this before when we were WaFu-ing in Orlando back in February! A PokeStop that was a landmark was closed in the daytime. Orlando locals told me they closed it down awhile ago, but the dark-blue "closed" PokeStop remained
— PkmnMasterHolly (@PkmnMasterHolly) March 20, 2018
WaFu-ing refers to a group of people go around in a car raiding, but as soon as the battle starts, the driver takes your group to the next raid. By the time you finish, you arrive at the next one ideally, meaning you have no breaks (thnx SecretLeague).
Although interesting, PokeStop closures are not uncommon. There are handful of cases where local officials or venue owners requested that Niantic either removes PokeStops from a particular area or limits their functionality outside of regular business hours.
The case of the Dutch wine museum falls right into the same bracket as Holly’s Orlando observation.
Hold your horses, Niantic is not testing Mythic quests at closed PokeStops!
