As I mentioned in the June event round-up, Pokemon GO’s been sold off to Scopely, and it’s a done deal now. In the lead up, as predicted, we’ve been seeing some changes that mostly seem related to getting more money out of players in simple ways, such as more local-only content being made remote raidable. There have been other player-positive changes too, but also some that admittedly feel similar to the old Niantic pinch.

So for today’s Massively on the Go, we’re going to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly of the lead-up and current state of Pokemon GO in the hands of Scopely.

Before we start, let me say that I think the game is already in a slightly better spot under Scopely this season than it was under Niantic last season, and it’s much better than it was in 2024. For example, the game’s core loop of catch pokemon, spin pokestops for balls, repeat had been becoming a background event to gamble boxes (eggs) and raid-only exclusives. This year, however, we have a lot more new pokemon, especially if you look at what we’ve had in the wild released by the year. Even though I think the game was much more interesting with generation-wide releases, the content obviously didn’t last as long as the slow-drip method. I’m not defending the latter, but I am saying I understand the reasoning.

While it’s great that we’re getting more variety in terms of wild pokemon now, I will say the the evolution requirements are getting harsher. Rookiedee had a matter of days to be harvested and evolved for a limited time move, Kingambit requires you to defeat 15 Dark or Steel raid bosses (so 15 weeks of raiding or about $14 worth of raids for a single day’s evolution), and Kubfu needs 30 Dark or Water types (depending on which evolution you want). It’s a trend I feel Scopely will abuse so that, yes, we may have more pokemon, but obtaining the final forms will cost us more time and/or money. Sadly, it once again puts pressure on the Buddy System, which is already overburdened.

And on top of that, the last few months have given us more “special” (backgrounds) ‘mon, which count as a special trade while still having very limited storage for a collection game. I’ve been tossing special backgrounds and some PvP pokemon again, but even with maxed storage, I have fewer than 85 spaces to play with when I go out. That spaces is full in less than an hour of play if I’m not constantly trashing stuff, and I can tell you it’s not fun at all.

Although Scopely has posted information on the Go Pass, long story short, the devs admit it’s still in a testing phase. As essentially a Battle Pass that is supposed to encourage daily play, it just isn’t working for me. I didn’t much care for it at Sinnoh fest, and that included the Lucky Trinket, and with the bugs I’ve heard, I don’t intend on dropping cash for it now, even though I do intend on giving Scopely some money just so I’m able to withhold it later to send a message. Granted, I did the same for Niantic, and outside of major events I covered, my wallet stayed closed for about two years, but I’d like to think it was part of the downward trending revenue that seems to have helped push Niantic out of IP-based gaming.

Again, though, I’d argue we’re seeing improvements. While it came before the transfer, the past few months have seen Community Days slightly expanded through roughly five-day-long quests and evolution move extended for a while week, so if you miss the event proper, you could always hope friends save some extras for you to trade and evolve later, without having to wait until the end of the year round-up event.

However, we also saw the loss of post-CD 4-star (local only) raids for those unable to make event hours, which was the (very lame) way Niantic tried to justify reducing CD from the six-hour COVID days back to a measly three that even fewer people can make. It’s sad that Community Day isn’t exactly a thing, but clearly the devs that transferred to Scopely know they needed to fiddle with some of the mechanics to make it more inclusive, especially for people who don’t have the luxury of working a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job.

Speaking of inclusion, I will say that as both player and press, suddenly getting information on events earlier has been great. As some readers may recall, there were times we didn’t get the skeleton of the monthly schedule until the month and even events already started. Even better, Scopely’s first official season and month had almost all its event details out in May, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the history of Pokemon GO. Major kudos for this!

For the most part, I think it’s clear that there’s some give and take here with Scopely. I’m sure some things were done for it at Niantic to help ease the transition, but the company is still making its own decisions for a game that clearly has some deep design flaws. Nowhere is that currently more obvious than the Max Battles, which still feel like a walled-off and busted section of the game.

Again, it seemed obvious for monetary reasons that permitting remote raids for Max raids of all levels and Shadow raids would be a natural move for Scopely to recoup some of the costs of the buyout, and it’s great. It really feels like it’s bringing “local only” raids to an end, which is great for most of the playerbase. Previously, only players in major cities could locally do back-to-back raiding if they wanted, so Niantic’s constant excuse – that “the game wasn’t meant to be played that way so we need restrictions on remote play” – often felt insincere. That being said, the increased price of remote raid passes and the limits that still exist from the Niantic days (even if the pass limit increased and restrictions on content decreased) still makes it seem as if the majority of the playerbase who may want to spend money on the game instead pay a tax for not living in major cities.

Remote raid options for Max Battles especially help for the 40-player Gmax raids, and some of the recent ‘mon additions (like Chansey and Machamp) would help brand-new players get into the gym scene, but the system overall is still terrible. The increased particle cap of 1500 doesn’t mean a lot if people don’t enjoy the system, and those who do like it still have to spend particles on both raising pokemon and raiding them. This is important to note because even though remote Gmax raids are possible, there are many complaints on social media and in the community, ranging from the loss of your pass if you fail the raid to large portions of the 40-player raid lobbies being filled with people ill-prepared for the encounter. Not just “omg they don’t have the best pokemon maxed out for this” but “why did they bring Squirtle to fight a final-evolution Grass-type?”

Under Niantic and possibly continuing into the near future, raising pokemon that are in the Max scene outside of certain events feels like a punishment, as these are regularly linked to quest requirements, such as “Raise Beldum 10 times” or “Unlock a Max move.” You either need (unevolved) spares or to burn particles on junk ‘mon or (the worst sin) simply not invest in good ‘mon until there’s an event that asks you to, which is actually worse than the FOMO of waiting for Community Day moves because at least those pokemon can be evolved to middle stages and/or other investment types (leveling or unlocking secondary moves).

Acquiring particles in specific ways is also still a big let down, as it’s often very specific, oddly timed things that may push people to go outside after midnight to walk. Even then, accidentally clicking on a power spot at any point, even when not participating in hyper-specific min-maxing strategies, can ruin even simple particle-cap planning. Being able to choose to collect particles, much like the spinning of a pokestop, would be an easy fix that, for whatever reason, Pokemon Go’s owners don’t seem to want to implement.

And all of this ignores the fact that the system is still buggy. Even before the new remote raiding option that eats both particles and raid passes for attempts (the former supposedly is a bug), other bugs that prevent catching a prize Max Raid ‘mon (such as if the game crashes or you back out to activate an ability), poor UI design (rapidly trying to join a raid may cause you to accidentally use paid particle packs, as the use and confirmation button both overlap with the “join” button), or outright eating your particles mark the system as clearly in a testing phase, yet Niantic (and I’m assuming Scopely too) refuses to compensate for any errors the user experiences in this system.

It doesn’t help that the game also crashes more frequently, and as there’s no way to rejoin Max Battles, players lose both time and opportunities from this. If you do get through, the game still only allows you to drop off pokemon from your team, meaning you’re down an invested pokemon. Not only that, but having to choose between legendary pokemon to generate candy or GMax ‘mon, which are often common spawns (especially for certain events) that have only a small chance of spawning Dmax ‘mon, is practically a non-choice: People go with the legendaries, aside from some show-offs who (at least in my community) seem like whales who spend tons on the game and don’t have to worry about the bonuses.

Again, while I know a lot of people appreciate the option to remote raid Max Battles, there are so many issues that this “bonus” only served to highlight how busted the system is. Without some major leak or a trustworthy employee coming forth, we’ll never know how involved Scopely was in the original Max system, but I’m hoping one of the first orders of business will be an overhaul. I already said at its initial release (and tuning) that it needed major work, and while we’ve seen small improvements here and there, it’s constantly felt like putting band-aids over bullet wounds. Old players who couldn’t get into these have left, and my new ones, who were supposedly the target audience, only come out sometimes, and they’ve been open about it being primarily so our pups can play, and these people are core gamers. They want to be hooked on something (in a healthy way).

This is where we need to look at the Scopely transfer in particular, though. Again, I’m sure some of the changes above while under Niantic may have also been partially from Scopely, but the recent Serene Retreat approach of 1600 particle limit and 800 particles from power spots is a lot more satisfying and feels less punishing than the junk Niantic tried, especially in terms of unlocking Max moves as part of quest requirements to bank particles. If it turns out to be just more testing, then we’re all in for a bumpy ride, but if the change is permanent, Scopely may just be, *gasp*, listening to the playerbase and reworking the system better than Niantic did.

Naturally, all of this can change. We’re only about a week into the formal Scopely transition as I write this, but I’d argue the core parts of the game have improved more than the annoying additions detract. We may not be seeing direct communication, but sharing more details with us on at least monthly events feels more respectful of my time. Death bells for local-only content is a really good starting move, but Max Battles in particular are an ugly, complicated mess, though Scopely is tackling them with some success is a very short amount of time. None of this has really brought back any lapsed players I know of, but as a daily player, the ownership change is palpable.

Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!