By their\u00a0mission statement, Pok\u00e9mon Go developer Niantic\u2019s games have always been about encouraging real-world exploration, movement, and community engagement. This philosophy has always been at the heart of Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s design and was paramount to the game\u2019s appeal, as it created a game that more closely realised many people\u2019s childhood visions of setting out to catch \u2018em all more successfully than any mainline Pok\u00e9mon game before it.<\/p>\n

The global upheaval that was the COVID-19 pandemic forced a fundamental change in how Niantic games were able to be enjoyed. Players were no longer able to join local groups for raids, meet in large gatherings at parks for Community Day events, or in some cases even leave their houses if a rare Pok\u00e9mon spawned a block away. People were confined to their homes, and the augmented world of Pok\u00e9mon Go beyond their walls became out of reach for most people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Niantic was forced to adapt. Throughout 2020 and 2021, a swath of new features and gameplay tweaks were introduced to adjust for the fact that people simply could no longer go outside to play.\u00a0The distance required to hatch eggs was reduced. Incense items lasted longer and spawned Pok\u00e9mon at your location more frequently. Buddy Pok\u00e9mon would bring you gifts to help restock your item supply. The biggest changes made were doubling the interaction radius for your in-game avatar, and the introduction of Remote Raid Passes allowing you to join a raid boss battle from anywhere in the world with an invitation. But through all of these, the game slowly turned into something that the developers never intended it to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n