Pokémon GO has been within the headlines a good quantity not too long ago after Niantic offered off its gaming division to Saudi-owned cell specialist Scopely. However in some excellent news for followers of the AR sport, the builders have introduced that they are doubling the variety of each day distant raids gamers can participate in.
This appears to be like to be a everlasting change, and given the timing, you would be truthful in assuming that this was a choice made by Scopely. Nonetheless, in an interview with Eurogamer, senior producer John Funtanilla has stated that the choice got here from the crew: “It is fully the management right here, internally, and positively one hundred pc our choice to make these adjustments.”
“These adjustments take a very long time to get into the sport,” Funtanilla tells the publication, insisting that talks had been occurring for “years” and that the timing is solely a matter of coincidence. Shadow Raids are additionally now accessible with Distant Raid Passes.
I have been at Niantic for whereas, I labored on Shadow Raids and it is one thing we introduced up on the time, we mentioned it internally” Funtanilla continues, saying that — on the time, “every part was in direction of investing in communities and ensuring we had been increasing that gameplay,”
Earlier this yr, Pokémon GO ran assessments with the Shadow Ho-Oh Raid, seeing how distant raiding impacted participant conduct. This was vital as a result of, to Funtanilla, “…there are a whole lot of micro milestones alongside the best way. It isn’t one thing we will simply flip on.”
There are nonetheless limits to the quantity of Distant Raids you are able to do a day — it is now ten versus 5 — as a result of “The magic of Pokémon Go remains to be taking part in in individual and assembly up in communities. It is all the time going to be essentially the most price efficient method to play.”
The rationale for the rise, and permitting gamers to participate in Shadow Raids remotely, is right down to the sheer quantity of content material in Pokémon GO now. The precedence was all the time to get the content material on the market, after which see how gamers react to it.
“For remotes, it is one thing we have all the time tried to discover” Funtanilla continues, “however these discussions might take years… And I feel at this level it strains up with us increasing gameplay.” So, regardless of the weird timing of the replace, the Pokémon GO crew is insistent that that is their concept, and that the implementation of options like this simply take a very long time.
Since promoting its gaming division, together with the massively profitable Pokémon GO, to Scopely — which is owned by Saudi online game funding firm from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (the identical one which owns a stake in Nintendo) — Niantic has put all of its eggs into Niantic Spacial. Sadly, the firm was hit by layoffs simply final month.
Are you proud of the rise within the variety of Distant Raid Passes? Inform us down under.
