It’s been over a year since Niantic made the controversial decision to restrict Remote Raid Passes in Pokémon Go to five a day and increase the price—but the community is still actively in an uproar over it.
You can’t go onto a Pokémon Go social media or Reddit post without someone asking for the changes to be reverted to allow players to join raids anywhere in the world as many times as they want. Still, Niantic is steadfast in its decision to make these changes work, even if it means upsetting some of its fans.
Steranka went on to reaffirm that the changes had to reflect Niantic’s mission, which was getting players outside and meeting new people. Steranka even went on to say that the change “was super painful” to him as he used Remote Raid Passes a lot, but “in hindsight, [the Remote Raid Pass change] was definitely the right decision.”
As a person who still dislikes the changes to the Remote Raid Pass system, after talking to Steranka for quite some time on the issue, it’s clear to me that this decision isn’t one he made because he wanted to. It clashed with his beliefs and the core mission of Niantic and was a necessary change for the company’s mission to get trainers outside, meet new people, exercise, and have fun.
As Steranka put it, while the changes aren’t loved by any means, he hopes that “players that have stuck around and, you know, love Pokemon Go for what it is, can see the positive impact that that’s made and their communities.”
