After announcing new Shadow Raids coming to Pokémon Go on May 18, Niantic has also begun testing a new raid feature designed to make raids more convenient for players—but the community isn’t exactly celebrating the new addition to the game.
The feature, coming with the most recent Shadow Raids update, will allow players to check how many people are in a raid lobby from a distance without having to actually click on the Gym, potentially saving the need to travel.
However, this new feature doesn’t appear to be enough to entice players to attempt raids in the first place. With the recent changes to the Remote Raid Pass, there are fewer players participating in raids, with some players outright boycotting the game in protest. Others refuse to pay the increased price of the Remote Raid Pass. Both cases are leading to emptier Pokémon Go raid lobbies.
In a May 18 Reddit thread discussing the new feature, players mentioned how you might not make it to the raid on time if you have to walk or drive to the location. One player joked, “Let me walk to this gym that’s half a kilometer away… Oh, it started already and I’m barely halfway…” Another followed up with, “No silly, get in the car and break a bunch of laws to get there in time.”
As a result, Remote Raid Passes seem like the best option to pair with the new feature. But, as previously mentioned, players are already fed up with the Remote Raid Pass issue.
The feature seems to be of especially low value to players in smaller towns where Remote Raid Passes were considered a necessity. With few Gyms around and pricier passes, the game has become significantly less playable for some, and simply showing the number—or lack of—people in a lobby isn’t going to change that.
This comes after Remote Raid Passes were confirmed to be locked out of the upcoming Shadow Raids. Until something is done about the ongoing Remote Raid Pass frustration and the declining state of the game, new features will likely not be met with the same excitement as they had in the past.
