‘Pokémon Go’ dev responds to concerns about remote raid changes

Pokémon Go game director Michael Steranka has acknowledged the “valid concerns” from players following the recent raid changes.

Niantic recently introduced new changes to the game’s remote raiding feature, limiting players to using five remote raid passes a day, while also raising the price of each pass.

While some players have criticised the change, some Niantic employees are being targeted with personal abuse (via Eurogamer). Steranka took to Twitter today (May 24) to respond to the abuse in a lengthy thread, saying that he has personally received attacks about himself, his wife, and newborn child.

I know that many of you are frustrated with some of our recent decisions, but just know that we see the feedback and are thinking of ways to address many of the valid concerns without sacrificing on our mission and vision for Pokémon GO.

— Michael Steranka (@MichaelSteranka) May 23, 2023

“I decided to block an account for the first time today,” Steranka said. “I usually pride myself on never blocking anybody, even though some people say some pretty hurtful things about me. I genuinely think it’s important to read contradicting view points and not get trapped in an echo chamber.

“But this account, which was created just this month, seems to have been made with the sole intent of harassing me and insulting my family. I hope we can all agree that this is not okay and something we should wholly reject from the community.”

Steranka continued, saying that he knows many players are frustrated with the recent changes to PokémonGo, but the team sees the feedback and is “thinking of ways to address many of the valid concerns without sacrificing on our missions and vision for Pokémon Go.”

Pokemon Go recently received Shadow Raids, allowing players to take on powerful bosses and have the chance to catch new Pokémon partners — if they can successfully defeat the Shadow Raid Boss.

In other gaming news, Frictional Games has released a Steam demo for its upcoming horror game Amnesia: The Bunker ahead of the game’s official release on June 2.