Pokémon Go’s Remote Raid changes doubled price, limited access due to ‘game balance and economics’ factors

The community had an intense reaction today after the Pokémon Go developers told players they were going to increase the price of Remote Raid Passes and that they would be limited it only five Remote Raids per day. It went over just about as well as a Charmander trying to do Fire-type damage to a Squirtle.

There were many reasons the company listed for making the change, the biggest being they wanted people to go outside and interact with others during Raids, which would mean they only need regular Raid Passes in order to participate.

Niantic cited the overreliance on Remote Raid Passes as one of the motives for implementing the change.

In an interview with Eurogamer, vice president of Pokémon Go Ed Wu admitted economic and balance reasons were also a factor.

“It’s important to ground [the fact] the vast majority of folks in our game find a lot of value in Pokémon Go from many other parts of the game beyond raiding,” Wu told Eurogamer. “But the game balance and economics of Pokémon Go are now being dominated by Remote Raids in a way we never intended. And for a segment of the player population, this is fundamentally unsustainable.”

In addition to game balance and economics, he also said Raids constitute only a small part of the Pokémon Go community, and that it needs to be balanced for enjoyers of any part of the game.

Not surprisingly, the majority of the community doesn’t agree and feels one of their favorite features is being taken from them, and now they’re being charged a premium for it, too. Remote Raid passes currently cost 100 PokéCoins for one and 300 PokéCoins for three. Come April 6, one Remote Raid Pass will cost 195 PokéCoins, and three will cost 525 PokéCoins.

Players are rightfully mad, and Niantic knows it’s likely to lose some money in the short term, but they’re hopeful in the long term it will be better for the longevity and balance of the game. Players and Niantic alike will need to wait and see whether their plan goes off without a hitch or ends far worse than they expected.