Pokémon GO's weekly Remote Raid Passes are changing to a rotating item selection

Another pandemic time perk for Pokémon GO returns to normal

20 May 2022
by jmaldonado 0
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“Our goal is to shift the balance back towards the fun of raiding together in-person again... If there’s a hatching event going on, we may feature Incubators, for example.”
—Michael Steranka Pokémon Go live game director

Niantic has announced that starting next week the cheap weekly remote raid pass deal will be changing. This feature, introduced during the COVID-19 Pandemic, allowed players to purchase raid passes from a 1 coin item box that refreshed weekly. This was added as one of the many measures made to make Pokémon GO more social distancing friendly. Players could access gym raids without having to leave their homes for a very affordable price.

Niantic has said that while the cheap 1 coin box will remain the items will change to bring focus to certain events that might be happening in game, for example, Michael Steranka (Pokémon GO Live Game Director) told Polygon this.

Our goal is to shift the balance back towards the fun of raiding together in-person again. Sales and discounts are really powerful ways to indicate to Trainers what types of game loops they should be focused on at any given moment. If there’s a hatching event going on, we may feature Incubators, for example. We want to leverage the 1 PokéCoin bundle to do just that moving forward, and use it to emphasize other types of gameplay.

[Polygon]

Just to be clear, Remote Raid Passes themselves are not going away, just the ability to get them weekly at a cheap price. Niantic has slowly been trying to remove the Pandemic era perks from the game but fans have often been annoyed by the changes, many feeling that the perks simply make the game better to play. While Niantic have listened to the criticism and changed plans before it’s best to not bet on that.

To read more of what Michael Steranka had to say about this change we recommend reading Polygon’s article where they answer some of their questions, which will be linked below.

What are you’re thoughts on these changes? Happy about getting new items in the rotation or wish the passes were here to stay?

About jmaldonado

jmaldonado

A recently graduated creative writer hoping to work his way into the greater gaming sphere.

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