Pokemon Go director addresses avatar controversy, level 50 cap & more

In a recent interview at Go Fest 2024: Madrid, Pokemon Go’s director addressed the recent avatar controversy, the level 50 cap, a new NPC tease, and much more.

Pokemon Go’s in-person Go Fest 2024 events are in full swing, with players currently celebrating in Madrid from June 14, 2024 until June 16, 2024.

Members of Niantic’s development team have also attended the event, with the game’s director, Michael Steranka, among them.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Steranka commented on various aspects of the game that fans have been wondering about for some time.

First and foremost, the director commented on the recent avatar controversy that took the community by storm in March 2024.

When asked about the controversy and if the team were keen to make further adjustments to avatars, Steranka said, “Absolutely. We knew that that was going to be a challenging one for us. Players have grown to love their avatars for the past seven-and-a-half years and anytime you change something like that, there’s a lot of risk involved…”

Niantic

The executive confirmed that Niantic has seen “a lot of feedback” from upset players and said affirmed the team was “hard at work” absorbing that feedback and making adjustments.

He also said this was just the start of avatar adjustments and that his goal is “for every single player in the world to really feel they can be represented in Pokémon Go.”

Steranka also touched on the current level 50 cap and said it was something Niantic has “talked about a good amount.”

“If we ever do some type of level cap increase, you might recall when we first increased to Level 50 we completely changed the source of XP gains,” the director said. “It’s hard to remember, but previous to that update, XP was much, much harder to come by.”

The Pokemon Go executive explained that should the team expand the cap to level 60, hypothetically speaking, they want to keep new players in mind first and foremost.

Niantic

Another topic of discussion surrounded the sporadic release of Mega Pokemon in recent months, with Mega Heracross breaking things up in April 2024.

Steranka explained that Niantic approaches release “on an individual Pokemon basis” and desired to make the debut of each Mega Pokemon impactful. “With the few remaining Megas that we have left, we really want to make sure that they release in a meaningful way,” he said.

The interview also touched on a potential new NPC first teased in the 6th Anniversary artwork, the value of the currently underutilized XXS Pokemon, the limit on badge tracking, and more.

While it’s unclear when any of the features and changes Steranka touched on in the interview will come to Pokemon Go, it’s clear that Niantic is aware of community feedback and keeping a close eye on it at the very least.