"I'm honestly getting sick of Niantic toying with my feelings": Pokemon GO player upset with reversal of increased spawn range

Pokemon GO fans had only started to believe that Niantic had given them a reason to celebrate. Then, they noticed that the spawn radius in this game, which is around 40m usually, had been doubled to 80m. They first thought it was a bug. However, after it wasn't fixed immediately, they believed it was a conscious decision on the developers' part.

Niantic Support made a tweet on June 27, 2023, stating the increased spawn radius in Pokemon GO was indeed a mistake and that the bug was being patched out. This sent the community into a spiral. u/Surfing_Arrokuda took to the game's subreddit to express their discontent regarding Niantic's this bug being fixed, saying:

"I'm honestly getting sick of Niantic toying with my feelings. We finally think they do something right, just for them to strip it away from us."

They were not the only player disappointed and angered by the reversal of the increased spawn range. Redditors swarmed to the comment section of Surfing_Arrokuda's post to share their grievances.

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Niantic infuriates Pokemon GO players by retracting increased spawn radius bug

The developers of Pokemon GO can't seem to catch a break when it comes to unpopular decisions. The chain started with nerfs, moved on to Remote Raid passes at the end of March, and has continued with the spawn radius changes.

Some individuals think as soon as they appreciate a feature, it is either nerfed or removed altogether.

Fans believe all the decisions that the developers make with respect to the AR-based Pokemon game are unilateral. Even though they say they will take community criticisms into account, very little feedback-based makes it into the actual game. This is clear from the company's response to the #HearUsNiantic movement.

Some players have compared this structure to other games, such as Old School RuneScape and League of Legends.

Players like u/ShutUpDorn wonder if there was a way to stop the update:

However, their hopes were immediately crushed as others pointed out that eventually, a forced update would be implemented, and they would have to give in.

Some believe these constant changes — which are unwanted by most players — are a result of Niantic being an AR-centric firm and not a "game company."

However, making the game unfriendly also affects this studio's goals for collecting AR-based data through the game. u/nurley pointed this out in their comment.

This decision even shed light on the matter of accessibility and Pokemon GO. Even after several calls to make the game more accessible to players with different levels of ability, no positive responses came from the makers.

The conversation ultimately boiled down to how Niantic is basically just another company that exploits the popularity of the Pokemon IP (Intellectual Property) to fund their other operations and interests.

Individuals pointed out that there were much bigger, more profit-generating intentions at play, and gamer satisfaction was not anywhere near the top of this company's priority list.