Pokemon Go fans are angry over Niantic’s response on “HearUsNiantic” movement

Pokemon Go fans are furious after the director of the game said that Niantic won’t respond to the HearUsNiantic movement.

For the last few weeks, the Pokémon GO fan base has been upset over a series of perplexing upgrades, which included a daily cap on Remote Raid and an increase in the price of Remote Raid passes. Many of these players have been calling on Niantic to withdraw the recent changes through the “HearUsNiantic” campaign. Fans contend that limiting Remote Raid Passes and raising their cost could impair the game’s overall health by limiting access for players with disabilities, those who struggle with mental health issues, and those who don’t reside in big cities. 

After remaining silent for over a month, Game Director Michael Steranka and Senior Producer John Funtanilla of Pokémon GO finally talked about the HearUsNiantic for the first time in an interview with Dot Esports. The HearUsNiantic movement won’t receive any direct response from Niantic, according to Steranka, but the company will continue to release fun new features for gamers to enjoy.

Together with discussing the future of the mobile game, Steranka and Funtanilla also discussed the reasons behind nerfing the Remote raids. The adjustments were “necessary for the longevity of the game” since, in the opinion of the developers, Remote raid “didn’t align” with the kind of experience Niantic was attempting to build. The creators think that using Remote raids, as opposed to going out and finding these elusive raids and community members, was an “unhealthy way” to interact with the game as a whole.

The statement from Niantic made the fans’ outrage worse

Sadly, it appears that those calling for the Remote Raid Nerf to be reversed will not succeed. Steranka made no mention of undoing the changes, and Funtanilla’s remarks essentially support that as well. This only served to further upset players who have committed the last seven years to the game, with many people assuming that the makers behind the game simply didn’t really care about the community.

Several fans even asserted that the only reason people continue to play Pokemon GO is due to the game’s association with the franchise. They continued by criticizing the underlying structure of Pokémon GO and emphasizing how disappointing their experience has been with the title. But, it becomes more evident from the executives’ comments in the interview that Niantic doesn’t care much about what a sizable portion of the player base of its most popular game has to say and is prepared to take the possible heat that could result from it.