Pokemon Go players slam Niantic over “excessive” paid Research quests
NianticThe announcement of the Pokemon Go Taken Treasures event has brought to light the unusually high number of paid Research quests in January 2024 alone, as fans call out devs Niantic for this unwelcome trend.
Paid Special Research in Pokemon Go is a common part of events, where these quests give fans more perks, such as extra items, more encounters with event-exclusive Pokemon, and several bonuses.
But since the start of 2024, trainers have noticed a new trend that involves paid Timed Research, that is, quests with a limited time to complete. The issue? Such quests were earlier free for all players.
It all started when Serebii owner, Joe Merrick, made a post on the X app (formerly Twitter) that highlighted nine paid tickets in January, mentioning that “it’s got a bit excessive now.”
The tweet is based on Joe’s other post that urged Niantic to stop making Timed Research paid, keeping the costs limited to Special Research only. They even went on to call it a”bad practice.”
A large number of Pokemon Go players dived into the comments section and expressed their woes with Niantic about these Paid tickets.
A frustrated user vented: “Welcome to the new Pokemon Go normal, if there’s even a sliver of a chance people will buy something, they’ll (Niantic) charge. The issue isn’t the tickets, it’s the content given from them.”
A couple of players mentioned that they have stopped playing Pokemon Go as it is no longer “fun” and how “heavily monetized” the game has been.
This monetization prompted one fan to make a difficult decision. “This constant timed paid research bullsh*t is the reason why this year I will not do the Go Tour or Go Fest for the 1st time since it started,” before calling Niantic “greedy.”
Trainers feel that this isn’t a good start to 2024, as one put it, “9 already and it’s only halfway through January?? This game is going further down” before another wrote: “Don’t worry, they can still disappoint us further.”
With Pokemon Go forgetting to switch on shiny availability in various January events and the trend of too many paid Research quests, the community is certainly not in a good mood.
In the meantime, you can check out some exciting Pokemon Go stuff such as the current Raids and Go Battle League schedules.