Summary
A former Niantic employee has alleged that leadership in the company regularly rejected quality-of-life improvements inPokemon GO. While the mobile game is still one of the most popular in the iOS and Android stores, its player base has grown frustrated that some importantaccessibility features are still missingseven years after its launch.
Despite the game’s continued popularity, Niantic is regularly under fire for making changes that hinder players’ enjoyment. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company was forced to adapt to the quarantines and shutdowns. In response to its players, Niantic released a number of much-needed changes to the game to help with players no longer being able to venture outside. These included shortening the interaction distance of PokeStops and Gyms and even increasing Pokemon spawn rates regularly and through incense. Then, Niantic began to revert some of these improvements likenerfing the effectiveness of incense. Some of these updates were always intended to be temporary, such as the weekly discounted Remote Raid Pass. However, these changes made the game much more accessible to players and so many wanted to see them stay.
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A former employee alleges in a Glassdoor review of the company thatseveral small quality-of-life changesthat they proposed that did not need any significant output were rejected by their product manager. The revelation comes from a former client engineer who worked on the game for more than a year and who went on to say that this rejection was not because the ideas were bad or harmful to Niantic’s profits but instead, based on a “feel.” Glassdoor is a website where current and former employees can anonymously leave reviews for companies.
The silver lining in the review is that the company is an excellent place to work if someone is a fan ofPokemonbecause of the “kind and helpful” people working there. They ended on the note that Niantic should do better to avoid losing the favor of thePokemon GOcommunity.
This review may not come as surprising for a number of players. There is a common sentiment in the community that Niantic does not know what its player base wants. One common issue is the continuous lack of communication regarding changes to the game with just this week, fans noticing that Niantic raised the prices of Pokecoins. Players were, for the most part, lessupset about the increase in costthan the fact that it came without any warning.
While microtransactions in a free-to-play game are to be expected, many fans agree that the rampant monetization while taking away features that players have come to enjoy is a bad look. However, there may be some hope on the horizon for the game’s future as a recentleak indicates a new feature coming - PartyPlay, which would allow fans of the game to play with their friends. While there is no release date yet, some players hope that this is a sign of Niantic wanting to support the game in the long term.
Pokemon GOis available on Android and iOS.
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