HearUsNiantic: Pokémon Go players take a final stand against Remote Raid nerfs

Pokémon GO fans and influencers have united to express their opposition to the recently revealed Remote Raid changes that are set to take effect on April 6.

Niantic made one of its most contentious statements last week when it said that Remote Raid pass would have a daily cap and a price hike that would make them almost twice as expensive from April 6. The expected changes led to a great deal of fan outrage, especially from those who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to take part in in-person raids.

With the hashtag #HearUsNiantic trending on Twitter and other social media sites, Pokémon GO players are urging Niantic to reconsider its plans for remote raids. The hashtag also has a message from the player base outlining its concerns and displeasure with these changes to Pokémon GO.

For seasoned gamers, this hashtag might be a familiar sight as it was successfully used in August 2021 to convince Niantic to undo some of the post-pandemic changes, including restoring the expanded PokeStop radius. Unlike the previous petition, which met with little to no success, this one has the backing of numerous content creators from around the globe, including Joe Merrick from Serebii, PokeMiners, PokéJungle, PvPoke, FleeceKing, and many others.

The Remote Raid changes are expected to affect players who live in remote areas, have physical or mental limitations, have social anxiety, have irregular job schedules, or may not have the time to travel to raid locations.

The community has urged Niantic to implement modifications that reward fans who can raid in person while leaving fans who can only raid remotely alone rather than penalizing them. The suggested changes included premium rewards, boosted lucky friend odds during the initial in-person raid encounter, and guaranteed Raid candies.

While Niantic is mute, the petition has already received 70,000 signatures

At the time of writing, about 70,000 people have signed the petition on Change.org, and many Pokemon GO users have even commented that they’ve stopped playing the game or are selling their accounts online.

On the other hand, the fan movement puts Niantic in a difficult situation where they can either keep their players satisfied by perpetually keeping the remote raids untouched or they can make a substantial profit by pushing users to leave their homes and travel to key checkpoints in the game.

Niantic has not provided an official response to criticism but a leak from a reliable data miner suggests that the company is moving ahead with its publicly announced plans for remote raids. Pokémners discovered a string of code that referred to the Remote Raid Pass limits when sending or accepting friend invites.

Header: Niantic