Niantic Responds To Backlash After Reversing Pandemic-induced Changes To Pokémon Go

After a abrupt rollback to the pandemic-induced extended ranges for Gyms and PokéStops successful Pokémon Go, Niantic faced dense pushback from fans. You tin drawback up connected the specifics of the changes and archetypal backlash successful Andrew Reiner’s reporting here. On Thursday morning, Pokémon-focused tract PokéJungle joined the chorus with an open letter to the Pokémon Go developer demanding the COVID-era changes stay. Last night, Niantic made an authoritative effect to PokéJungle’s missive and those aggravated implicit the change, assuring fans it’s looking to find a mode to determination forward.

In its message to the Pokémon Go community, Niantic acknowledges the grief of the subordinate base, saying, “We admit your missive and each of your feedback. We perceive you. We are humbled by your response. Not each crippled has specified a passionate, planetary subordinate basal that we’re fortunate capable to have.” The missive addresses the developer's steps to bring exploration backmost to the crippled successful places wherever societal distancing guidelines person been lessened. While the existent question of the COVID-19 Delta variant isn’t mentioned, Niantic does say, “we volition proceed to show wellness and information guidance related to outdoor activities, and volition marque aboriginal changes if necessary.”

Niantic says it volition beryllium putting unneurotic an “internal cross-function team” to look into players' concerns regarding enactment distance. Data from the radical volition beryllium made nationalist someway with the adjacent Pokémon Go play connected September 1. Here’s the afloat paragraph addressing this caller task force:

However, we person heard your input large and wide and truthful to code the concerns you person raised, we are taking the pursuing actions: We are assembling an interior cross-functional squad to make proposals designed to sphere our ngo of inspiring radical to research the satellite together, portion besides addressing circumstantial concerns that person been raised regarding enactment distance. We volition stock the findings of this task unit by the adjacent successful crippled play alteration (September 1). As portion of this process, we volition besides beryllium reaching retired to assemblage leaders successful the coming days to articulation america successful this dialogue.

Niantic has not decided to re-extend the enactment distances astatine this time, though we’ll spot if that choice whitethorn alteration successful little than a month. With disguise regulations coming backmost successful galore areas owed to contagious viral variants, Niantic whitethorn beryllium forced to marque different cautionary move anyway.