All hell has broken loose since Niantic went ahead with its plan to add a daily limit to Remote Raid passes and increase prices, much to the dismay of Pokémon Go fans, who responded by striking. But while a large number have called it quits, those who decided to stick around are seeing the impact of the changes, and they claim it has done irreparable damage to local communities—which was the main concern in the first place.
“Since the remote raid pass change, we had a week of everyone complaining about the price change and now, all four chats are completely inactive and it seems like people are either playing solo, or not playing at all,” said one fan.
“All the group chats around my area have gone silent almost immediately after the update,” said another. “These chats consist of players who started 2016-2017, and have been the backbone of communication and raids.”
Others have had similar experiences with WhatsApp groups and Discord servers, suggesting it’s had a massive impact on the community at large, to the point where the damage might be irreversible.
The reason, as explained by one fan, is a lot of the people who have uninstalled it have “pretty much no interest” in returning after the boycott. Quite a few fans confirmed this was the case, and they used themselves as an example.
At this point, it seems like even if Niantic did revert the changes to Remote Raid Passes in a future Pokémon Go update, or at least lower the price and increase the daily limit, it might not be enough to win those fans back. What’s more, the impact it’s had is also ruining the experience of those who are still active.
For that reason, fans have summarized the ordeal as a “bad business decision,” which is exactly what they said when they first learned about it all in February.
