Pokémon Go Fans Fear For the Future After Remote Raid Pass Changes

Pokémon Go has garnered immense popularity since it was first released to mobile devices in 2016. In that time, several fan-favorite Pokémon have appeared, with fun twists on specific gameplay challenges that have only appeared in specific games. Despite the popularity, fans worldwide are worried about the future of the mobile game and some are wondering if they will continue to play following developer Niantic revealing the new Remote Raid Pass price and daily restrictions.

These were shared in a brief blog post presented by Niantic on the Pokémon Go blog page. Starting on April 6, the price to purchase a single Remote Raid Pass goes up to 195 PokéCoins, the three-pack bundle increases to 525, and players can only use a total of five Remote Raid passes per day.

Related: Pokémon Go throttles Remote Raid Passes by increasing prices, adding a daily cap, and providing more in-person rewards

Pokémon Go fans pushback against Remote Raid Pass revisions

Niantic made these changes despite the continued community pushback on how much they actively use and enjoy the Remote Raid Passes. These items allow players to participate in any Gym Raids when they receive an invitation from players on their friend list, regardless of their location. It’s an item initially introduced in 2020 as a response to the COVID outbreak and worldwide lockdowns. It immediately garnered praise from players who could participate in raids no matter where they live.

Now, more players will either need to find in-person groups to participate in these raids or fork over enough money to use Remote Raid Passes. Even before COVID happened in 2020, for many players, it was difficult to bring together a local raid group and reliably complete these challenging encounters. Niantic continues to double down on these raids, evident in the limited-time Elite Raids where larger groups and heavy Pokémon team coordination is encouraged, despite the multiple bugs associated with them.

So far, Niantic has yet to offer an official statement following the Pokémon Go community’s reaction to these changes. Many in the community are keen to boycott playing the game, hoping a larger strike against the developers will make Niantic rethink its current strategy. However, given how previous reactions similar to this have been met with silence, we don’t quite know if the Niantic team is willing to pull away from their “get up and move” theme and reverse these changes in a way that benefits players.