Pokémon Go’s remote raids may get a daily limit

Discontent about possible change is already brewing

Niantic is still reeling from its disastrous Pokémon Go Tour: Hoenn live event in Las Vegas, which suffered from a multitude of technical issues, but the next PR debacle for the studio is seemingly approaching already.

Dataminers have found a concerning update in Pokémon Go, which added the possibility for the developers to limit the amount of remote raids players can do daily.

“It would appear the leaks we spoke about on the podcast were correct and there will be limits to how many remote raids you can do each day”, commented the PokeMiners Twitter account.

RESOURCE ID: item_remote_raid_ticket_desc
TEXT: Pass to join a Raid Battle remotely. You can join {0} Raids a day.

— PokeMiners (@poke_miners) February 20, 2023

Niantic has already undertaken steps in the past to weaken remote raids and force players to go back to participating in raids in-person, and each of those moves was massively unpopular in the community. It’s no different this time, especially after the recent Las Vegas disaster.

“Surely Niantic can't make things worse after this weekend? Oh, oh they just did”, commented a user on a popular Pokémon Go subreddit. Another person, who attended the event in Las Vegas, wrote: “I know Niantic wants the pre-pandemic raiding culture to come back. It's not. I did the Vegas event. We were having to use remotes instead of the bonus raid passes we paid for because Niantic was so bad at planning the event. This is beyond insulting.”

The thread’s creator posted: “When I was making this post, I was literally waiting at an in-person Regirock raid, sitting in a park and waiting for a PokeRaid lobby to fill up. In 10 minutes, nobody showed up. And there were fewer than 20 lobbies open when I created it. If millions of online players aren't even willing to use a remote pass, good luck finding local players willing to walk or drive to the gym to raid…”

Niantic’s CEO John Hanke told GLHF in a recent interview that the studio feels a responsibility to reconnect people to the planet in a world where people walk around glued to their devices. This mission statement is definitely reflected in the constant chopping away at remote raids, but also seems very much at odds with what a large part of the player base wants.

While remote raids were originally intended to be a temporary solution for the pandemic, they have irrevocably changed the way Pokémon Go is played and enjoyed, regardless of whether Niantic likes it or not.

Another issue people have brought up is the way Niantic is trying to force its agenda through. It could simply buff in-person raids by giving them additional benefits instead of nerfing remote raids into oblivion.

Nothing is certain yet about the future of remote raids, but the fact that the mere implication of a daily limit gets hundreds of comments from the community is a sign for how important an issue this is for players.