Pokémon GO Increasing Remote Raid Pass Prices & Limiting Daily Participation

Remote Raid Passes were "never intended" to dominate the experience

by Liam Doolan Fri 31st Mar 2023

Pokemon GO — *Image: The Pokémon GO / Niantic*

Niantic's hugely successful mobile title Pokémon GO has announced there are some changes coming to the game's Remote Raid Passes early next month.

On 6th April 2023, trainers can expect price increases to Remote Raid Passes, new limits to the number of times you can participate in a Remote Raid per day (a maximum of five times per day), and various other Remote Raid adjustments. Niantic explained how it "never intended" Remote Raid Passes to dominate the experience:

"Since their introduction in 2020, Remote Raid Passes have come to dominate the experience of playing Pokémon GO in a way we never intended. Rewarding Trainers with additional Candy XL and adding other new features are two of the ways we hope to further incentivize playing Pokémon GO in person with your friends, family, and community.

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"We plan to keep Remote Raid Passes as part of Pokémon GO. However, we believe this change is necessary for the long-term health of the game, and we do not make it lightly. We feel this is a necessary step toward our goal of preserving and improving the unique experience of playing Pokémon GO—a game we hope you continue to enjoy long into the future."

Here are the adjustments coming in the next Pokémon GO update:

Pricing adjustments:

The price of the Remote Raid Pass three-pack will increase to 525 PokéCoins.
The price of single Remote Raid Passes will increase to 195 PokéCoins.
A Premium Battle Pass three-pack will be added to the shop for the price of 250 PokéCoins.

Remote Raid participation limits:

Trainers will be able to participate in a maximum of five Remote Raids per day.
This maximum may change and increase for special events.

Remote Raid Passes:

Remote Raid Passes will be included in the pool of potential rewards for Research Breakthroughs.
Remote Raid Passes earned via Research Breakthroughs will still be subject to the existing inventory limit of three Remote Raid Passes per Trainer.
If a Trainer earns a Remote Raid Pass from a Research Breakthrough while at the three Remote Raid Pass limit, they will receive a Premium Battle Pass instead.

Purchases of Remote Raid Pass 3-Packs will still allow you to hold up to 5 Remote Raid Passes if you purchase it with 2 Remote Passes already in your inventory.

Candy XL:

Trainers who participate in five-star raids in person will earn more Candy XL than before.

How do you feel about these adjustments? Comment below.

[source pokemongolive.com]

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He's also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.

1
Axecon
Fri 31st Mar 2023

This is really going to ruin the game for some people, especially the raid whales. Great job killing your game Niantic!

2
EarthboundBenjy
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I am so glad I never got into this game. My stance on mobile gaming is that it is all just fleeting nonsense with no substance. And the wishywashy nature of this game's development history seems to vindicate my decision to never download the app in the first place.
Sucks for the fans I guess.

3
Eel
Fri 31st Mar 2023

“On no, they’re buying too many! Quick! Make them less desirable!”

4
BLD
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I'd sort of be OK with just the raid limit, but increasing their prices too sure is a convenient way to limit how many people play them, with no other motivation whatsoever, huh Niantic?

5
RainbowGazelle
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Bullcrap! As if they needed even more money. If you're sooooo concerned about remote playing ruining your curated experience, then just limiting the number a day is enough. You don't need to increase the price too.
How about not increasing prices, Niantic?
Thought not.

6
MitchaK
Fri 31st Mar 2023

This has a 50/50 stance with me. I mean I understand that there are people that could potentially be playing this game from their couch,thus taking away from what they intended and kind of slapping those whom do play it as intended in the face. So I can understand this kind of a ""balance""
However,there are people with a situation that cannot play this game as intended,be it location or some personal situation, and doing what they are doing will limit those even more so which would surely cause them to lose a good amount of players.
Damned if they do,damned if they don't. But! If they feel the need to ""balance"" it,they need to stop throwing MULTIPLE restrictions. Leave the pricing alone. Leave the amount of passes used in a day alone. Cut the rewards in half or even possibly decrease the possibility percentage of having a Mon with good stats.
This way,it's fair to those that can't play with intended ideals and it more or less allows those in person to get higher drop rates/stats,thus promoting actually being there🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

7
MitchaK
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I...may have ranted a bit 🤔🤔😂😂

8
Mz3player
Fri 31st Mar 2023

They're using your location data and selling it to big tech companies so they can sell ads more effectively. They don't get the data they want if you can raid from home. Simple as that.

9
YoshiFR2
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Got out after they banned my account. I’m not going to start over 7 years of progress again.

10
Tyranexx
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Great. It's hard enough to participate in person with my schedule half the time. There is a small but active raid community where I live (mostly rural), but participation has dwindled post-Covid. It was hard enough to find enough willing participants - plus time slots that worked - on the recent one day only Regidrago Elite Raids. Raids are mostly dead outside of newly released legendary shinies or new legendaries.
I'm not too bothered by the limit as I rarely hit the ceiling. But increasing the remote raid pass price further is a jerk move. Niantic clearly no longer wants my money (though I'm not much of a spender on mobile games anyway). Worst of all is what this will do to accessibility for players who are unable to travel for whatever reason.

11
beartown
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Yay, never enough manipulation and cash grabbing 🤭

12
Pokefanmum82
Fri 31st Mar 2023

well this sucks for me I guess. I live in the country and don't drive so I'm basically screwed. Good job Niantic. Not everyone lives in the city.

13
RubyCarbuncle
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I live in Rural Ireland out in the middle of nowhere so I have to drive to a populated location to play. I can understand people being upset over this but it doesn't bother me that much, that being said I don't play as often as I did due to lack of free time.

14
RupeeClock
Fri 31st Mar 2023

This is an extremely damaging move for both Niantic and the players, for both the players who were able to go out and raid in-person and those who couldn't.

The reality of raids is that in-person co-ordination is difficult. I almost never do legendary raids outside of the scheduled raid hour on Wednesdays, or weekend events where there are a lot of people out and about.
Remote raids enabled a degree of co-ordination that didn't require people to travel a long distance just to tap their screen for a few minutes (raid battles aren't exactly in-depth, it's purely a strength of numbers game).

The #1 incentive to do raid battles is to try and catch a rare Pokémon, whether it's a legendary Pokémon you need for your Pokédex or team building, for their candies or their time-limited exclusive move (gotta have that FOMO), or for the chance of a shiny or one with perfect IVs. For a lot of people, they realise their time is more valuable than the time it takes to leave the house and co-ordinate raids in-person.

This is where remote raids were beneificial; it enabled in-person players to get a large enough group to win, and it allowed people anywhere else (not just being at home or office) to join in, so everyone has a chance at getting what they wanted.

By nearly doubling the price of remote raid passes this just punishes the players who want to play at their own pace, and not at Niantic's schedule.
Limiting how often per day you're allowed to remote raid was clearly intended to discourage whales and third party raid hosting services like Poké Genie and Raid Now, but it still causes harm to the wider player base who relied on these to complete raids.

For Niantic, it'll mean a huge reduction in revenue as they're capping the number of raids players can do per day. I can't see how they can justify that to anyone in business.

15
FiveDigitLP
Fri 31st Mar 2023

This is is just crazy. Pokemon Go has already been struggling, but this is like Niantic WANTS their app to die!

People in my area (metro of a smaller US city) often use remote raid passes in order to be able to invite enough people to be able to take on a really strong Pokemon. With these changes, I think we're going to see a dramatic reduction in the number of raids that actually see participation--at least in my area anyway. Limiting the number per day is one thing, but increasing the price is just ridiculous.

I'm guessing Niantic is hoping the changes they've made to make it easier to see who is in a lobby and how much time they have left before it starts along with Campfire (their maps/communication app) will offset some of these changes, but I just don't think it will be enough.