Pokemon GO Fans Left Frustrated After Niantic’s Now-Deleted Meme

Pokemon Go fans continue to be left frustrated by Niantic, which has made a series of controversial decisions in the past month. Niantic has now faced backlash for false advertising for an upcoming Pokemon Go event.

Niantic announced Sustainability Week 2023 on April 14 and the event began yesterday on April 20. Niantic, when promoting the event, said that players would have to walk half the distance to earn Candy with their Buddy Pokemon.

Trainers, we’d like to clarify that there is an error with our infographic for the Sustainability Week event bonuses. The stated “1/2 distance to earn Candy with your Buddy Pokémon” will not be available as a bonus for this event.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) April 20, 2023

The company took to Twitter yesterday and said that this particular event bonus was mentioned as an error and hence, it will not be available for trainers to utilise.

It’s also interesting to note that Niantic’s statement came after the event began and when players in New Zealand complained about this reward not being provided.

Niantic’s tone deafness continues to be staggering.

I enjoy the game in principle, but the way they rub it in their customers’ faces how they don’t really matter makes it difficult to want to continue with it.

I assume next season’s updates will be make or break for many.

— Zzweilous (@TheZzweilous) April 20, 2023

A Pokemon Go player reacted to this decision in a Reddit discussion post, highlighting how the company should have chosen to honour its commitment instead of rolling back on its mistake.

The user wrote, “Wild that they put out wrong information by accident and instead of honoring it (which costs them nothing), they go like “oops” and take it away. I was excited to try and grind some legendary XLs at 5km but now I won’t even bother.”

Niantic gets bashed for ‘going outside’ meme

Niantic is having a troubled month indeed, and it’s certainly not good news for them to be receiving criticism from fans while they’ve just announced a new game.

The company has been mainly criticised for limiting the Remote Raids, despite massive community backlash. Pokemon Go players have been running campaigns to make Niantic listen to its community but it has not worked so far.

So while Niantic did not address the issues of the community, or communicate with them, they instead decided to post a “going outside” meme.

Mask off. Niantic is 100% straight up trolling the playerbase now. #pokemongolyf #pokemongo pic.twitter.com/tTXRKKguBi

— PokemonGo Memes (@PokemonGoLyf) April 20, 2023

The joke was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes, as Niantic joked how there has been a positive response from the public about “going outside.”

Pokemon Go fans who have felt unheard by the company didn’t let this joke slide. Niantic faced immediate backlash and soon deleted the tweet.