Pokemon Go players outraged over controversial Remote Raid pass changes
A new blog post from Niantic outlined some changes being made to Pokemon Go’s Remote Raid Pass distribution, and players are, once again, outraged over the developer’s decisions.
Pokemon Go was launched in 2016 with the goal of using the franchise to encourage exploration and build communities. Since its launch, the game has changed quite a bit as Niantic has added things such as Raids, the Battle League, and more.
However, as the entire world was affected by the pandemic in 2020, the way fans played Pokemon Go changed as well. Niantic implemented a number of changes to help trainers continue playing while stuck inside for weeks at a time.
One of the biggest changes was the addition of Remote Raid Passes. These would allow players to participate in Raids from anywhere in the world. They were distributed for free quite often during 2020, but Niantic has started to slow their distribution.
Niantic / The Pokemon CompanyPokemon Go players dislike Remote Raid pass changes
On May 19, Niantic made a blog post titled “New social features, as well as updates for in-person raids” where they outlined a few changes. The first was the addition of the in-game chat feature, and the second was a change to Remote Raid Passes.
The blog stated, “Starting on May 23, the shop’s 1 PokéCoin Event Box will no longer include Remote Raid Passes.” And trainers recently noticed the price of a three-pack of Remote Raid passes had increased from 250 Pokecoins to 300.
Needless to say, these recent changes haven’t sat well with the community. Many users flooded the comments of a recent Twitter post from Pokemon Go berating Niantic for its decisions.
…okay, what the heck, Niantic? Why do you always have to take things away every time you add something anymore?
This is a straight price increase as you also remove remote raid passes from the weekly boxes. That’s kinda dirty. pic.twitter.com/BqVfrTRAa8
— JRESeawolf (@JreSeawolf) May 19, 2022
I hate complaining about a game I love but I stream this game every day and do a lot of raids, some people on my stream only do one raid a week bc of the essentially free one in that box and they look forward to it, it was something fun for the f2p players 🙁
— Jaytheunderdog (@jaytheunderd0g) May 20, 2022
No more weekly remote raid passes is such a bad move.
Why take away something that helped make your game accessible to more people?
— Ace Trainer Liam (@AceTrainerLiam) May 20, 2022
A number of comments called this change “greedy” and increasing the price of Remote Raid Pass bundles was a way for Niantic to “get every penny.” Others stated that the need for Remote Raid passes stems from the lack of players in their community.
Niantic has yet to respond to the backlash, but there’s always a chance they will listen to their players. Until then, players can look forward to saving their hard-earned Pokecoins to spend on Remote Raid Passes.