Niantic’s corporately worded response boils down to two key points - the company reaffirmed that the rolling back of gameplay changes implemented during the pandemic restores ‘foundational elements’ of the game that players enjoyed prior to the abnormal situation arising as countries around the world were forced into lockdown.
Niantic’s games have always been about physical motion and are designed to promote real-world social interactions as players would congregate around points of interest in person, and these tenets remain part of the company’s core mission. The features that are being rolled back now that pandemic restrictions are being lifted in countries such as the USA and New Zealand never would have been added without the health crisis in the first place - they’re arguably antithetical to the Pokémon GO experience. However, despite these statements, Niantic has heard the community outcry and is seeking to come to a resolution that the players of Pokémon GO are happy with. Nonetheless, that resolution isn’t equal to a full backtrack and the permanent retention of stay-at-home features. In the response, Niantic announced the creation of special development team designed to field new ideas on how to meet community demands while staying true to the Pokémon GO vision. Chief among concerns from the disapproving fans seems to be the reduced interaction distance of PokéStops and Gyms. These are key real-life meeting points designed to foster community interactions, and is one such field where Niantic wants to meet half-way. The developers have committed to giving players an update on the work being done to meet their demands in a way that lines up with the sort of game that Pokémon GO was striving to be from before the pandemic by September 1. Apparently, this ’task force’ will be contacting various high profile players and community leaders for their input and feedback in the time before then. Niantic Labs has previously taken criticism from the Pokémon GO fanbase for pushing the game into a more pay-to-win direction throughout the title’s lifetime, placing a greater emphasis on recurring in-game purchases. This latest controversy regarding the stay-at-home features has compounded those voices of dissatisfaction. You can read Niantic’s full response here.
