Even after reviving interest in the Pokémon franchise and becoming the most successful Alternate Reality Game ever, Pokémon GO still managed to create big points of controversy and discussion among the already broken fanbase of the franchise itself.
- Many are happy to see Pokémon applied in real world via augmented reality. The fact that it's made by the same developer behind Ingress also helps, which many fans think that the game will ensure the same quality as the latter. On the other hand, there are fans that don't like it for being yet another spin-off game with cash grab potential, fear the microtransactions will be extremely obnoxious and act as a paywall restricting the players' freedom, and are apprehensive of it being a mobile game due to the industry's reputation as overly-casual and manipulative. Then it was revealed that while the game itself is free, the game's wrist peripheral will cost $34.
- Pokémon evolve by catching members of the same evolutionary tree to earn "candies" from that line. Earn enough candy and you can evolve one of those you caught into its next stage. Some people are glad, because this simplifies evolution, while others think it's just tedious due to how many Pokémon must be caught for a single evolution (13 for an average 50 candy evolution, not counting other stages), which is compounded by how rare some of them are. Even with the addition of the Buddy system, getting candies for the rarer ones is still tedious, though you at least don't have to catch more. Adding Pinap Berries (which double candy drops, even during double-candy events) has improved this further.
- The fact that the game encourages players to go outside and meet up in person. Some enjoy this because it encourages players to go out and make local friends and explore places they normally wouldn't, much like Ingress before it. Others worry that it will result in a surge of obnoxious players in places that don't like people just loitering around en masse. And there are those who worry that the game could be used to prey upon other players, or that real-world fistfights could break out over the game, something unlikely to happen in a traditional online game due to players generally being much further away from each other. Note that thievery was reported during the opening weekend of the game, specifically using the game to lure players and then rob them.
- On a related point, the game requiring moving around in the real world means that the physically handicapped are at a disadvantage since they're not able to freely explore as well as able-bodied players can. Some feel that the game needs mobility-boosting features so that disabled players can get in on the action and the hype factor of the game, while others feel that such features could be potentially exploited by both able and disabled players alike and that there's always the canon Pokémon games on portable systems if one wants to play a game that doesn't rely on moving around. Not only that, but in real life, even if you are fully abled, gyms and stops can be miles away from you. Worse if there is a raid battle ongoing.
- The game quickly became a huge cultural phenomenon and one of the most popular video games of all time to the point of even eclipsing the main series Pokémon games. Some fans were overjoyed that a Nintendo franchise, let alone Pokémon, was enjoying this level of success for the first time in decades. Others reacted with Hype Backlash and It's Popular, Now It Sucks! sentiments; in particular, fans of the main series games were disgruntled that a simplistic smartphone game that initially featured only Gen I Pokémon (leading to the occasional "Genwunner" comment) was getting tons more public attention than the core games.
- Unlike in the main series games, fully evolved starters are some of the hardest Pokémon to get, due to the amount of candy required to evolve them fully and the fact that even their basic forms are somewhat uncommon (apart from the one you can get at the beginning of the game) and difficult to catch thanks to their low catch rate. Some people appreciate that this makes them more rewarding to obtain and that their popularity provides an incentive for players to keep grinding over several days/months, while others wish that they were as easy to obtain as they are in the main series games. Later on, starters eventually became slightly more common finds in the wild, particularly the Grass and Fire-type starters.
- The 7/29/2016 update:
- This update strengthened many attacks while also weakening others, in particular Water Gun and Aqua Tail which effectively ended Vaporeon's reign of terror as one of the best Pokémon in the game. Many players were thrilled with the update, since it dialed down some overpowered Pokémon while previously bad Pokémon were made better, and overall balancing the game. Others were less than thrilled, not happy that their Vaporeon and Snorlax had their claws trimmed, especially since many of these players had been investing in the now-outdated meta since the start. However, some aren't really upset about these changes, but moreso that Niantic made absolutely no public statement and went ahead and implemented the update with no warning.
- After having already been changed from the "exact meter distance" tracker from the beta and being rendered broken shortly after launch due to the strain the feature was putting on Niantic's unprepared servers, this update finally fixed the "footprint" tracker... by simply removing it altogether, making it impossible to pinpoint the exact location of a Pokémon. As this move happened in tandem with many third-party trackers getting struck down, many were miffed. Those for it pointed out that the system as it had become was too confusing and that the strain it had caused at launch made salvaging it impossible. Those against this were upset that Niantic decided to just up and get rid of the feature with no alternatives, likening it to turning finding mons into a game of Marco Polo, then removing the "Polo" part. The replacement "nearby and sightings" tracking system ultimately became divisive because of this, with some finding it more intuitive than the footprint tracker, while others found it confusing and missed the old tracker.
- Niantic's method for calculating a Pokémon's attack power has had polarizing results to say the least. It involves multiplying their Attack and Special Attack from the main games but only adding their Speed, meaning Fragile Speedster Pokémon suffer a significant reduction in their attack power. Jolteon, Starmie, Gengar, and Alakazam are a few examples of powerful battlers in the main games that are subpar in Go due to this formula. This is also why Electric-types, like Jolteon, are ranked relatively low, as their speed is meant to make up for their low bulk and raw strength. This video
goes into detail about the flaws in this method. Thankfully, this was fixed with a balance update, making Jolteon, Gengar, and Alakazam some of the best attackers and giving them CP reflecting that. - One update of the game prevented rooted devices from accessing the game. Some people see this as a fair anti-cheating measure, while others (especially those who own rooted devices) are understandably upset. There are workarounds, but they need to be constantly updated, since the method employed by the game to detect rooted devices, Google SafetyNet, tends to catch up with the workarounds rather quickly.
- The Buddy System. It enables a player to assign a Pokémon as their travelling buddy, earning a candy or two every time they walk a certain distance together. On one side, you have players who are glad to have a way to earn candies for their Pokémon without having to be constantly catching many of the same ones or having to hunt down more of a particularly rare one (especially if you can't catch more of some Pokémon you can hatch from eggs because you live in certain areas and can't travel for various reasons). On the other side, you have players disappointed over the fact that it takes a significant amount of walking to earn large amounts of candy, and the rarer Pokémon require longer distances for each candy (up to 5 km), making the system Awesome, but Impractical for high-tier evolutions (Dragonite takes 500 km of walking to evolve from a Dragonair, assuming you have no candies and never catch any more from that line).
- The update on August 1, 2016, changed the game so that players would not see any Pokémon at all if they were travelling above 15 mph (24 km/h), in an effort to further prevent people from playing the game while driving; a popup message would also appear once the game detects that the player is moving at a speed above said limit. While some players welcomed this change as it would keep players safe and prevent Niantic from being sued by an injured player, other players who typically spent most of their time (if not all of their time) playing the game while being a passenger in shared or public transport rejected this change as it essentially locked them out of the game until they either had a chance to play outside a vehicle, or the vehicle they were in stopped for a period of time (e.g. a car at a red light, a tram at a stop, or a train at a station). Once Niantic applied the same restriction to spinning Pokéstops, and limited the player's maximum speed at which egg incubation occurred to around 6.7 mph (10.8 km/h), the entire game became virtually unplayable from a moving vehicle. These changes also frustrate bikers who cycle above the speed limits since they need to consciously reduce their own cycling speed if they want to find Pokémon, spin Pokéstops, and incubate eggs.
- An update revised the training mechanics, allowing players to use a full team of six Pokémon to train at a gym and scaling the existing Pokémon to the player's level. While initially welcomed due to the ability to allow newer players to be able to earn defender bonuses through gym spots and raise gym prestige rapidly, the latter feature made leveling and staffing a gym with ten Pokémon extremely easy, eliminating the benefit for newer players. To counter this, prestige mechanics were adjusted, increasing prestige penalties and reducing prestige gains to quell the problem, essentially creating the same problem as before the update with slightly different conditions.
- Go on Reddit and you'll find a lot of people talking about how they feel the game punishes rural and suburban players — and sure enough, expect at least one or two response from someone talking about how "removed" from the target demographic they are or how the whole point of the game is to "Go out and explore the real world". Then expect responses from people pointing out how in places like New York City or Toronto, you can technically walk outside of your hometown in ten minutes and how many people simply do not have the option to walk out of their town on a whim, since "Walking out of their town" will mean "Spending several hours on foot". Or point out how no other game flat out punishes you for living where you do with an inferior version. Niantic has since discussed potential fixes to make rural areas spawn more Pokémon, but specific details haven't been released.
- The "Adventure Week" event (a Rock-type and specifically fossil based event) that ran from May 18th to May 25th in 2017. While quite a lot of players were happy that spawn rates for certain Rock-types (specifically all of the fossil Pokemon, Larvitar, Magcargo, Onix and Sudowoodo) were heightened and became more frequent during the event, others felt disappointed that many of them, specifically Aerodactyl and Larvitar were not heightened as significantly as advertised by Niantic. The latter is especially bad regarding Aerodactyl, as it was essentially the poster mon for the event, appearing in all the advertisements and presented as a significantly increased spawn, and yet reportedly was still one of the rarest spawns in the game even during the event, with a good portion of the player base complaining that they never encountered one for it.
- Likewise for the Valentine's Day 2018 event and Chansey. Despite big hype and an increased spawn rate, she was still exceptionally rare. Especially since you would need to catch 13 of them for the chance to evolve it into Blissey.
- April Fools' 2018 brought a minor controversy related to the game's switch to Retraux Pokémon sprites for a week. While pretty much everyone liked the joke, there was a bit of controversy between people who preferred the normal sprites and people who actually liked the pixel sprites better, owing both to nostalgia and to their larger size making them more clear on the nearby radar.
- The Ultra Bonus Event that kicked off in the second half of September 2018. It was heavily promoted for enabling players to hatch regional exclusives from 7km eggs. While many players rejoiced for finally getting opportunities to score Farfetch'd, Mr. Mime, Tauros, and Kangaskhan, as well as finish up on catching some Kanto 'mons and Mewtwo becoming a normal Raid boss, fans seeking the regionals would soon discover that the 7km eggs only would have a 12.5% of hatching into a random regional, with the remaining 87.5% being filled with Alolan Pokémon that players likely hatched in great numbers prior to the event. Fortunately, when regionals returned in September 2019, they had a boosted chance of hatching, reaching 40%.
- The COVID-19 Pandemic made participating in events almost impossible due to the lockdowns being enforced around the world. Niantic compensated by not only making events easier to participate in, but also made a lot more events each month so no one would miss out on anything. While initially welcomed for making the game much easier, especially for the rural players who had felt left out, the sharp increase in events was eventually met with scorn and frustration due to people feeling the effects of "fear of missing out" if they decided to take a break and also frustrating people trying to find Pokémon that aren't a part of the events. On the flipside, Niantic also received criticism for rolling back some of the better-perceived changes as the lockdowns ended and the world moved on from the pandemic.
