Niantic has upset its fans by removing the Pokemon Go Remote Raid Pass from the 1 Poke Coin bundle and increasing the price of a 3-pack by 50 Coins.
In the last few weeks, Pokemon Go has been gradually returning to normalcy -- it had its first in-person Community Day meetup in years and launched another event late last month. Unfortunately, another big change is coming -- the Remote Raid Pass is being replaced in the 1 Poke Coin bundle.
Pokemon Go Remote Raid Pass Nerf Impacts Rural Gamers
The announcement of the removal of the Pokemon Go Remote Raid Pass from the 1 Poke Coin bundle was made last evening in a blog post on the game's official website.
"As of this month, Mega Energy and Rare Candy XL are available as rewards for completing local raid battles, making it easier to evolve and strengthen your Pokémon," read the blog post. "Also, starting on May 23, the shop’s 1 PokéCoin Event Box will no longer include Remote Raid Passes and will instead feature a rotating array of items."
Understandably, quite a few people are upset about this change in discussions on Twitter and Reddit; several players have also highlighted that the 3 Remote Raid Passes bundle has increased from 250 Poke Coins to 300 Poke Coins.
A handful of these complaints highlight the recent upward trend in U.S. COVID-19 cases, but the vast majority of complaints are coming from rural players who depended on Remote Raid Passes to actually complete Raids and have a shot at getting Mega Pokemon.
"So basically if you don't live in a city where you can raid a lot with a group who get together and can afford things like 300 [Poke Coin] raid passes, you're screwed," read a Twitter thread from Kara Gibson. "I used remotes to play with my community from home since there is none where I live making sure I didn't miss out. Even worse still, I go out less now because my disability got worse from having [COVID-19] a while ago and all [Niantic] seem to do is penalise those who have had MASSIVE life changes cause of the pandemic that is STILL A THING and can't do what we used to be able to."
"[The] changes they’ve made are pure garbage," Redditor /u/skeletoris said in a harshly critical Reddit comment. "[The] remote raid passes going to 300 just seems like the s***tiest cherry on top of it all. [I’m] a rural player, it’s HARD to get coins from the 3 more or less dead gyms, and honestly a dollar a raid was barely worth it to begin with… especially if you don’t have the means to pay real money for virtual[.]"
While the removal of the Pokemon Go Remote Raid Pass from the 1 Poke Coin bundle is disappointing to many players, the recent addition of Pokemon Go to the Prime Gaming lineup does offer more opportunities to get more items for free. You can play Pokemon Go for free on iOS and Android via its official website.
