{"id":719301,"date":"2026-07-30T15:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719301\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:42:12","slug":"pokemon-gos-legacy-at-10-years-is-well-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719301\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s Legacy At 10 Years Is, Well, Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 9, three days after Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s 10th anniversary, thousands of players gathered in New York City\u2019s Times Square for a celebratory event that ended with people working together to catch an event-exclusive Mewtwo<\/a>. For those there, it was a magical realization of the promise Pok\u00e9mon Go has always claimed to hold. The AR monster-collecting app has been a fixture in communities both online and off, and having a massive crowd work together to capture one of the most iconic monsters in the series\u2019 history is one hell of a way to ring in the big one-oh. But underneath the cheers of the crowd, a pesky, uncomfortable ringing can be heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go was the biggest video game in the world at one point, and proof that Pok\u00e9mania was alive and well in 2016. Everyone, whether they be a hardcore Pok\u00e9mon master, a lapsed trainer who hadn\u2019t played a Nintendo console in years, or newcomers who had never picked up a Pok\u00e9 Ball, was either playing the game or at least aware of it. As most successful, popular things do these days, Pok\u00e9mon Go has raised prices on its microtransactions, grown more flooded with ads, and made unpopular design changes that have pushed some players out. The degree of enshittification Pok\u00e9mon Go has inflicted on its players has been debated for as long as the game has been installed on phones and tablets, and some players point to developer Niantic\u2019s acquisition by Saudi-owned Scopely and its rebranding as Scopely Digital as a turning point after which things got much worse. But for a lot of people who played the game early on and then bounced, those old memories of millions of people united are still crystalized.<\/p>\n

Living the dream <\/p>\n

Luke Herr, a Pok\u00e9mon fan and podcaster, recalls how Pok\u00e9mon Go bonded him with fellow players on the Ohio State University campus, and that regular play sessions became a \u201ccommunal event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could tell if the servers were up or down based on how many people were looking at their phones,\u201d Herr tells Kotaku. \u201cStrangers would stop and ask you questions, and suddenly I was walking seven or eight miles a day, going out and exploring and dealing with the original bugs the game had. I remember spending 40 minutes looking for a Tauros at night that had probably vanished 10 minutes after I started searching, but the nearby Pok\u00e9mon listing didn\u2019t reset unless you restarted the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as a game played by passersby ended up becoming a centerpiece at events that helped the larger Columbus community.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n

\u201cWe held canned food and toy drives for some of the community day events and even got sponsors for events early on,\u201d Herr says. \u201cI usually ended up playing on the OSU campus even after I moved and needed to drive because it was this communal event\u2014we\u2019d wanted walkable spaces where we wouldn\u2019t be blocking off other people. I remember crowds of 60 plus people going from raid to raid ranging from kids to seniors across the campus and people would be like \u2018what are you doing\u2019 and as soon as someone said \u2018Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019 they\u2019d be like \u2018that\u2019s still a thing\u2019 and it was like, \u2018yeah, there\u2019s 60 people here specifically playing the same game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go wasn\u2019t just the realization of the monster-catching experience that long-time fans had imagined as kids; it was also an entry point for those who never had a chance to go on a Pok\u00e9mon adventure on a Nintendo platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat got me started with Pok\u00e9mon Go was, at the time it was released, I hadn\u2019t ever had a system that could play a main-line Pok\u00e9mon game, so I was thrilled they\u2019d made a mobile game I could play,\u201d Pok\u00e9mon fan Sean O\u2019Neill says. \u201cI was so excited about it that I got my mom to download it with me. I remember us trying desperately to track down an Eevee a few miles from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family bonding is a pretty consistent theme for folks I spoke to. Chris Braak, a parent to two kids, started playing the game with his children and his wife at the height of the covid-19 pandemic as something they could do outside without breaking social distance protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older son was five,\u201d Braak says. \u201cHe\u2019d just started pre-k when suddenly the schools closed and he had to be sent home again. We couldn\u2019t go anywhere or visit with anyone, so Pok\u00e9mon Go ended up being a lifeline. We could run around safely outside catching Pok\u00e9mon. I have very distinct memories of seeing a rare Pok\u00e9mon on the map and grabbing the boys and taking them down the street to try to catch it, or driving around at night with everyone looking for Pok\u00e9mon gyms where we could battle. It was a difficult time for everyone, but it was especially difficult if you had young kids, because you had to find a way to explain what was going on in a way that wouldn\u2019t terrify them, and I don\u2019t think we always succeeded at it, but Pok\u00e9mon Go was one of the few unalloyed good experiences from that time, it made both my sons into huge Pok\u00e9mon fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go has always been good at incentivizing people to break out of their comfort zones, meet people, and go to places they\u2019ve never been, whether that be locally or somewhere a plane flight away. Hays Kronke, a \u201cretired ghost-type gym leader\u201d who uninstalled Go in 2024, traveled several times over the years to meet new players, find Pok\u00e9mon, and come back home with new stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would regularly meet in person for trades, raid hours, community days, PvP tournaments, and even non-PoGo related events like birthday parties,\u201d Kronke tells Kotaku. \u201cI think this is the true strength of the game, getting to connect with people and share stories about how \u2018I found this Snorlax on vacation in Mexico\u2019 or \u2018I walk with this Lugia because I saw the Lugia movie in the theater with my mom.\u2019 To this day, I still think fondly of a shiny Minun I caught on my wedding day. Me and my wife even travelled to massive in-person events in Ontario and Tokyo specifically for PoGo. We still tell stories about some of the weird and\/or cool people we\u2019ve met over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stories like these represent the ideal Pok\u00e9mon Go experience. People from all over the world and from different walks of life uniting under a common goal. As someone who grew up in a small town where Pok\u00e9mon Go was notoriously difficult to play early on because the area lacked the kind of infrastructure that would have marked local landmarks as Pok\u00e9Stops, attending my first Go Fest in New York City in 2023<\/a> and meeting so many people of different ages all brought together by a love of Pok\u00e9mon was like getting hit with seven years of FOMO all at once. Whatever happened after 2016, it was undeniable that Pok\u00e9mon still had the power to unite people across generations. But nothing that glitters stays gold forever.<\/p>\n

Trouble in paradise <\/p>\n

When a game is as big as this one, it\u2019s bound to have controversies, and in Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s case, each of them has likely lost the game players, or in some cases, forced them out. Despite Pok\u00e9mon Go carrying a veneer of being for \u201ceveryone,\u201d that hasn\u2019t always proved to be true. In 2023, there was a community-wide controversy as Pok\u00e9mon Go dialed back Remote Raid passes<\/a>, which allowed players to take part in in-game raids from a distance, rather than having to be in a specific area to participate. Introduced as a precautionary measure during the covid-19 pandemic, the Remote Raid passes had actually given disabled players and those who lived in rural areas a new way to be part of the community, but now they came with daily restrictions and resulted in what felt like a \u201ctax\u201d on people who couldn\u2019t make their way to a big city to play. The move prompted protests and a boycott under the hashtag #HearUsNiantic, resulting in players either uninstalling Pok\u00e9mon Go or significantly changing how they engaged with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Niantic effectively nerfed Remote Raid Passes, even if I wasn\u2019t buying them anymore, I objected to its willful destruction of online communities built around a feature they themselves brought to the game,\u201d Pok\u00e9mon Go player Joseph Mangano tells Kotaku. \u201cAt one point, I was a paying customer, but now I\u2019m free-to-play. My spending stopped after the first #HearUsNiantic campaign started when, despite the company ultimately reversing course on the rollback of COVID-influenced interaction radius increases, I found its disregard for the wishes of its devoted fanbase distasteful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company <\/p>\n

For some, the exit they made wasn\u2019t quite as dramatic. As Pok\u00e9mon Go sought new ways to keep players engaged, some just decided they didn\u2019t have time for the game\u2019s more demanding schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Go] went from one monthly event to a monthly event and a weekly raid night and ballooned from there,\u201d Herr says. \u201cSuddenly there was a special event each weeknight and something almost every weekend for three to four hours. I somehow always found time for the weekend events, but it turned into something to schedule around which was stressful\u2014especially when you then had eight-hour events on Saturdays and Sundays for Safari Zones. And then with more events that required raid passes or special passes, it turned into what I called my \u2018gym fees\u2019 where I was paying something like $20 a month to $60 to avoid missing out on events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the board, Pok\u00e9mon Go has become more expensive than ever. Though the game is free-to-play, its spread of microtransactions have become harder to ignore. Matthew Reynolds, founder and editor of the Pok\u00e9mon Go site One More Catch<\/a>, points to a growing trend in microtransaction-pushing since the 2025 Scopely acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good example of these changes are with Giovanni<\/a>, a PvE boss who has a lucrative Shadow Legendary Pok\u00e9mon up for grabs,\u201d Reynolds tells Kotaku. \u201cPreviously, the item to find him (a Super Rocket Radar) would come as part of a questline, but now it\u2019s rewarded at the end of a Go Pass, with instant access available if you unlock the paid track of rewards. It just makes for a less exciting chase, with monetization very much at the fore in a way it wasn\u2019t previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Megaraichugo\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company <\/p>\n

Some 2026 changes have worked to streamline the structure of the game and focus players on the game\u2019s Battle Pass equivalent, which Reynolds says has made the game \u201cmore formulaic and less dynamic,\u201d though he believes the game is moving in a better direction.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Scopely Digital] does appear to be addressing some of these issues<\/a>, including recently bringing back Spotlight Hour, adding more bonuses amongst its weekly structure, and offering Timed Research between Go Pass-driven events,\u201d Reynolds says. \u201cAll positive steps, and I hope this trend continues\u2014but as it stands, it\u2019s still a more formulaic and monetized game than it was a few years ago. I\u2019d love to see the likes of Collection Challenges and regular Special Research return for that questline fix, which was when Pok\u00e9mon Go was at its most fun to play for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mapping out the Pok\u00e9mon world <\/p>\n

While the microtransactions, cluttered schedule, and unpopular changes have put dents in the armor, one of the most frightening, lingering questions that surrounds Pok\u00e9mon Go concerns its use of player data. This is a game that maps where you go and asks players for photos of their surroundings. It\u2019s not uncommon for apps on your phone to track your every move, but the cultural ubiquity of the game and the range of location data it stores has certainly given players pause over the years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I\u2019ve thought about what data Pok\u00e9mon Go has, it has scared me a bit out of using the game,\u201d O\u2019Neill says. \u201cBecause I didn\u2019t have any Pok\u00e9stops or gyms around me when the game started, meeting people nearby through the game wasn\u2019t really viable, so the only way I made any friends in-game for a while was by posting my code online and, in hindsight, putting far too much trust into complete strangers. I actually stopped sending and collecting gifts to\/from my friends list because all my gifts were from places on my college campus, and I didn\u2019t want anyone to be able to figure that out. I think my distrust in the game has only grown because I\u2019ve gotten older and reassessed what info I\u2019m providing and how it could be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braak says he saw the way Pok\u00e9mon Go incentivized scanning as a red flag from the beginning, and he even tried to enforce a household rule to not use it with his kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when they introduced the thing where you could scan Pok\u00e9Stops with your camera to get extra rewards, and feeling really uncomfortable about it,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could have articulated exactly how I thought those scans might be misused, but it just felt like something. Someone was going to use this for something I didn\u2019t like. I refused to ever do that one, and told the kids not to either, but I don\u2019t know if they listened to me about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In just the past decade, it\u2019s become clear that corporations are mining everyone for data, and Jak Marshall, a data scientist in video games, says that there should be a baseline assumption that data collected is being used in ways that are relevant to the business they\u2019re dealing with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m playing Pok\u00e9mon Go, I expect that the data collected about during my play sessions is used for improving the Pok\u00e9mon Go product,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cAre players engaged? What days and times do they play? Which geographical regions have a lot of community groups in them? That sort of thing. Beyond that kind of use case, players should be clearly informed and be able to opt out of their data being used. A spatial dataset assembled by millions of worldwide players is a very valuable asset any way that you look at it, but it was built by a cohort of players who deservedly have a stake in how that data is used, and at the very least they should share ownership of that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company <\/p>\n

The lack of transparency about that usage was put on display earlier this year when a viral story claimed Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s map data was being used to train drones after Niantic Spatial, the company that retained Niantic\u2019s spatial data after the developer was acquired by Scopely, entered an agreement with Vantor, a \u201cspatial intelligence\u201d company that has provided support on military operations. The agreement meant that data collected by Niantic would be used to assist the company\u2019s navigation systems in places without a proper GPS signal. The insinuation that Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s data could be part of military strikes was understandably alarming, but Niantic Spatial released statements to Kotaku<\/a> denying that Go\u2019s player data was being shared with Vantor as part of the agreement, and also clarified that the company no longer receives any data from Pok\u00e9mon Go now that Scopely had acquired the studio formerly known as Niantic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow as part of Scopely, Pok\u00e9mon GO data is not shared with Niantic Spatial,\u201d a company spokesperson said. \u201cAR Scans collected through Pok\u00e9mon GO were submitted voluntarily by players who opted into the feature and were subject to the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at the time. The discontinuation of AR scanning and the end of data sharing with Niantic Spatial were part of the transition planning associated with Pok\u00e9mon GO\u2018s move to Scopely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Braak says the fear that Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s data could go to anyone who pays drives home the fact that in the modern era, when you choose to participate in something, no matter how benign it seems, you never know where your information is going to land.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one of these things is a point in a constellation that makes up the problem, which is that it doesn\u2019t matter which company acquired what, or who owns it, it doesn\u2019t matter if last time the data wasn\u2019t misused or this time it wasn\u2019t, because every part of this is just proof that there\u2019s no protection against it,\u201d he says. \u201cAt any point, anyone who is rich enough could buy up all this data and could make use of it however they wanted\u2014training autonomous drones or tracking down immigrants or whatever\u2014Niantic could sell the data or they could be bought out by another company and then sell the data, they could refuse to sell the data to someone who\u2019d misuse it but then that company could sell the data. There\u2019s nothing standing in the way of any of that except the basic human conscience of a bunch of CEOs and board members who are all specifically charged with caring about nothing except for profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The knowledge that Pok\u00e9mon Go could be the catalyst for something terrible has put a cloud on some of those memories of the early days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something really dispiriting about knowing that these memories, some of the only great memories I have with my kids during a really difficult time for all of us, can just be bought up and deployed by whatever billionaire psychopath wants it, whenever they want it, and they can use it to murder or terrorize kids around the world,\u201d Braak says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s something really exhausting about having to weigh every new technology, every fun game, everything my kids get excited about, and trying to guess how some venture capital turd is going to get his grubby hands on it and use it to make the world worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kronke says that the threat of Pok\u00e9mon Go one day being used for something horrible exists with any digital product these days because corporate excess infects even the most unassuming entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I\u2019ve had years of great memories with PoGo,\u201d they say. \u201cNothing can ever take those away, but in our dystopian 2026 world, everything has a price and it\u2019s always more than the price tag indicates. The billionaires of the world are insatiable and they are more than willing to use a cute electric mouse to strengthen fascist tools to facilitate their greed and control. There\u2019s no ethical consumption under capitalism, etc. etc. etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku \u2019s Pok\u00e9mon column in which we dive deep to explore notable characters, urban legends, communities, and just plain weird quirks from throughout the Pok\u00e9mon franchise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While in some cases the dangers remain theoretical, Niantic\u2019s acquisition and rebranding as Scopely Digital has had immediate ramifications. Scopely, a mobile game company owned by the Saudi Arabian government, is one of many attempts by the Saudi government at \u201csportwashing,\u201d<\/a> or buying into the video game industry to embed itself in a culture that people like in order to distract from its well-documented human rights violations<\/a>. For some, this acquisition prompted their hard break away from the game; for others, it was just another grievance to toss on the pile.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty miserable seeing a game you like get bought by a Saudi group,\u201d Pok\u00e9mon fan Nica tells Kotaku. \u201cI\u2019m a woman, and part of the LGBTQ community, so it\u2019s disheartening knowing a country that wants to repress everything about me owns a game I used to play a lot. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll return to the game for that reason, even though that wasn\u2019t the reason I stopped. I can\u2019t trust a company that\u2019s had more than a single scare about mishandling data, even if not all the stories are true. I also can\u2019t trust a company that\u2019d sell themselves to a Saudi company, especially a game in a series as widespread and \u2018for everyone\u2019 as Pok\u00e9mon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saudi government has money in a lot more places than just Pok\u00e9mon Go, and its presence in the video game industry has become so large, it\u2019s become almost impossible to ignore. Speedrunning and historically queer-inclusive event Games Done Quick recently came under fire for accepting a sponsorship from SNK<\/a>, which the Saudi government acquired a majority stake in<\/a> about four years ago, for the 30th anniversary of the Metal Slug franchise. The stream was canceled while it was underway and the event coordinators apologized, but it does go to show that Saudi money is popping up in many parts of the video game industry these days, and fans are having to make hard decisions about what they\u2019re willing to invest time and money into.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of game companies see being acquired as a neutral thing, something that will happen and they\u2019ll get no backlash for,\u201d Nica says. \u201cI also think using data for terrible things is something they assume will be fine, because people sign these scummy agreements to play the game and sign away all that data. The thing is, though, at least to me, companies need to learn that they\u2019ll lose people if they misuse the trust of their users. I can\u2019t be the only one who\u2019s going to steer clear of a game that genuinely got me through some hard times and made me some really special memories. If someone who cares about it as much as me is willing to never go back, then I\u2019m sure a lot of people are going to stop playing if they haven\u2019t already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even multiple controversies can topple a giant <\/p>\n

Do any of these problems really affect the game\u2019s popularity? It\u2019s hard to say. Though there has been significant dropoff since the 2016 peak, Pok\u00e9mon Go still brings in around 115 million players<\/a> a month. It\u2019s natural for a game\u2019s player count to dwindle as the years go by, but that number is still nothing to scoff at, likely chipped away at more by general loss of interest than any specific issue fans have brought up in the past decade. For those that have been tuned in and uninstalled for any sort of ethical reason, Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s legacy is bittersweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall I\u2019m just kinda frustrated and sad about it,\u201d Pok\u00e9mon fan Jack says. \u201cThe data stuff was always kinda poking in the back of my mind but I figured since every company was doing that shit I should try to focus on the positive side of things, except that side has been getting smaller and smaller and I think I\u2019m just done. Maybe they\u2019ll do something to win me back, provide some actual proof that they aren\u2019t using our data for shady shit, or at least make some changes so if you don\u2019t have other players nearby then you don\u2019t just eat shit, but I doubt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company <\/p>\n

Like many long-term relationships, Pok\u00e9mon Go is complicated for some fans. There have been incredible highs, and stomach-churning lows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely had a lot of fun,\u201d Herr says. \u201cit got me to walk so much more than I would otherwise, and I have distinct memories from the game. Standing on the RFK bridge with a dozen other people fighting Rayquaza in 2023 and then catching one with perfect stats is something I will always remember\u2014this almost transcendent event. Thinking back on spending days during Go Fests carrying around 30 pounds of water bottles that got lighter as the day went by because I was able to give water to the people\u2014I\u2019ll remember that. (I probably prevented a lot of heat stroke). There\u2019s a lot of good experiences I had and people I wouldn\u2019t have met otherwise and it brought together a community in a way I wouldn\u2019t have experienced otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as millions of players have dropped off in the past 10 years, events like the Times Square anniversary gathering put Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s staying power on full display. Games like Scarlet and Violet have added cooperative play for trainers to explore the world together, but nothing quite matches the feeling of putting on your running shoes to go on a journey with your friends in search of rare Pok\u00e9mon. At one point, Pok\u00e9mon Go was the ideal Pok\u00e9mon experience, finally putting your favorite monsters in your path for you to catch like you pretended to on the playground. Now, it\u2019s still that, but it has more asterisks next to its name than ever before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 9, three days after Pok\u00e9mon Go\u2019s 10th anniversary, thousands of players gathered in New York City\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,4332,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-pokemon-go","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}