Strong points
- Pokemon GO’s recent Riolu Hatch Day event received negative feedback from players, highlighting their displeasure with Niantic’s decisions.
- The limited-time event required players to hatch eggs during a specific three-hour window, which caused technical issues for some players.
- Some fans have expressed frustration with Niantic’s focus on daytime-only events, as it excludes players who work night shifts and want nighttime raids.
Developer Niantic’s latest effort to rekindle interest in Pokemon GO with its recent Riolu Hatch Day event seems to have fallen flat with some players, leading to complaints from fans of the AR game. The mixed reception to the time-limited event marks the latest instance of Pokemon GO players feel unhappy with some of the developer’s decisions regarding the game in recent months.
The latest in a long line of special events introduced to Niantic’s AR game over the years, Pokemon GORiolu hatching day tasked hatching egg players with unlocking normal and shiny variants of the titular Pokemon Emanation. While players had an increased chance of hatching Riolu from 2km eggs throughout the event, and could also obtain themed Field Research tasks, they only had a small window of time to do so. Unlike some previous events, which sometimes lasted several days, Pokemon GOThe Riolu Hatch Day event only ran from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. local player time.
RELATED: Pokemon GO Streamer Harassed Live on Twitch
Almost immediately after the Riolu Hatch Day event ended, disgruntled Pokemon GO fans took to the internet to express their displeasure. In a post on r/pokemongo sarcastically titled “Thanks for Hatching Day, Niantic…” Redditor Ditronus explained how they ran into technical issues while trying to hatch their Pokemon GO eggs during the event. indicating that Pokemon GOGPS tracking failed to track their journeys, Ditronus claims they traveled 23 miles during the three-hour event, but failed to hatch a single egg. However, some responses were suspicious of Ditronus’ claims, pointing out that they would have to be an Olympic level runner to cover that much ground on foot in 3 hours.
Another Redditor denounced Niantic’s choice to continue focusing on time-limited, time-limited events. Noting that they work nights at a hospital, Redditor OptimusPam commented that they were frustrated that mid-afternoon events “are always when I have to sleep for work.” Their message goes on to say that they played Pokemon GO since the game launched, but feel discouraged by the lack of nightly raids for players to participate in. Expressing a sentiment likely shared by other nightlife fans of Niantic’s game, the post ends with the exclamation that “Night owls deserve to have fun playing too!”
With Riolu Hatch Day facing serious backlash from some players just hours after its conclusion, it’s clear that Niantic’s latest Pokemon GO the event didn’t quite go as the developer had planned. It will be interesting to see how Niantic responds and what it may have planned to prevent players from disconnection from Pokemon GO for real.
Pokemon GO is available for Android and iOS.
