On March 30,Pokemon GOdeveloper Niantic announced a number of changes to its Remote Raid Passes as an attempt to “rebalance” the game for trainers to come. The announcement, however, seems to have done anything but that as thousands of players protestPokemon GO’s Remote Raid Passes price hike and participation limits, which went into effect as part of the changes on April 6.
Pokemon GOwas released in July 2016 and encouraged players to go outside, but Remote Raids weren’t introduced to the monster-catching mobile game until the COVID-19 pandemic began. The feature allows players to participate in tough PvE battles from their homes, which instantly gave more opportunity to people who suffer from disabilities, are immunocompromised, have social anxiety, or are just physically incapable of going outside.Pokemon GOcommunity ambassador Ali Vongsathian is one of the tens of thousands of players who are pleading for a reversal of the game’s recent changes and is also the creator ofthe viral Change.org petition, “Save Remote Raiding in Pokemon GO!”
Vongsathian explained to Game Rant in a recent interview that Niantic made a decision that"hurts" thePokemon GOcommunityand refuses to hear their concerns. They believe that if no change comes out of their protests, some players will just leave the game.
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Pokemon GO Changes “Took Away” A Lot For Players
Niantic increased the cost of a three-packPokemon GORemote Raid Passfrom 300 PokeCoins to 525 PokeCoins, while a single Remote Raid Pass was raised from 100 PokeCoins to 195 PokeCoins—all of which are most quickly attainable by exchanging real currency. Vongsathian, who is the community owner of Discord ServerPokemon GOSan Diego, said that a majority of players in his Discord aren’t putting money into the game anymore—including himself. To get PokeCoins on the app, players can earn them through certain activities like defeating other trainers' Pokemon at gyms and defending it, but the maximum amount a player can get is 50. If players want more PokeCoins with less work and quicker turnaround, they can pay anywhere between 99 cents and $99.99, with three remote raid passes now costing $4.99.
They’re making it double the price to do real remote raids. For me, that’s not a rebalance at all. That just seems like a company that just wants to make money off the game and you don’t want to hear your fan base. If you really want to rebalance a game, don’t increase the prices. Keep it the same. Make it an incentive to go out, lower the cost of regular passes that go out.
I used to put money into the game, but now, I’m strictly just free to play. We need to address the issue first before creating new ones. I still encourage management to post info to help the community stay updated, but I will focus more attention on the petition as well as ensure our message is out there. If I just keep posting new events from Niantic, it’s like let’s brush the issue under the rug. I don’t want to support a company that doesn’t care about the community.
Along with the regular Remote Raid Passes, there’s also a Premium Battle Pass for 100 PokeCoins and three Premium Battle Passes for 250 PokeCoins. The regular passes are sometimes awarded after completing at leastonePokemon GOfield research taskon seven different days. But, due to the recent update, players are now limited to participating in a maximum of five Remote Raids per day. Vongsathian emphasized that he is against the decision because now players have to be conscious of who they go into raids with. The San Diego resident also argued that Niantic didn’t consider players who live in rural areas where they don’t have access to gyms or PokeStops.
If you’re going to limit raids to five, a more feasible number would be like 50 or a higher number because a lot of people raid more than five.
I read the petition, I read these things like, “I have to drive 15 minutes just to go to get a PokeStop or a gym.” I’m like, “I’m sorry that has to be the case.” Yeah, you can go to the gym, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll have the right amount of people to even complete the raid. That’s going to be one of the issues. Now people have to kind of pick and choose who they want to raid with. You join a raid and are like, “I don’t know if they can beat this raid. Do I want to risk losing my raid pass?”
The Pokemon GO Remote Raiding Petition Continues to Blow Up
Vongsathian created thePokemon GOpetitionone week ago, which started out with 200 signatures. He said, before he knew it, it hit 20,000. At the time of this writing, it has over 85,000 signatures. On Twitter, the hashtag #HearUsNiantic also went trending on Thursday after the changes for the Remote Raid Passes officially went into effect. Vongsathian said that most people are standing by him and his decision; some have even turned off their locations for the mobile game – in addition to being strictly free to play – so that Niantic can’t gather their data. He added that everyone can make their own decisions, but acting like nothing happened will “contribute to the issue.” But, if Niantic continues to ignore the issue, Vongsathian said that the next step will be to leave the game.
My decision is, if they’re not saying anything, I think the next step here is just stop playing the game in general. It’s not the same. If [Niantic] does this now, imagine how they’re going to do decisions later on in the game. I wish they’d see what’s going on.
This isn’t the first time that manyPokemon GOplayers have been frustrated with Niantic and its decisions. The bigger difference here is that Niantic has yet to comment on the controversy and instead continues to post upcoming events and other updates for the mobile game. This lack of acknowledgment has caused some players to give into the new changes, while others remain hopeful and continue to abstain. Players will have to continue to wait and see if Niantic will address the issue, but the petition certainly proves the sheer volume of players impacted by these changes.
Pokemon GOis available on Android and iOS.
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