Niantic To Reverse Popular Pokemon Go Update That Increased Spawn Radius

Pokemon Go’s latest update 0.275.0 had players excited after they discovered it doubled the range at which catchable Pokemon appear on the map from 40m to 80m. Despite initial reports suggesting the change was intentional, Niantic has now said that the improvement was a bug that will be reversed.

Because the update notes were so vague, listing it only as “quality-of-life updates; minor bug fixes and performance improvements,” players initially weren’t sure if the update was working as intended. A number of reports from Pokemon content creators initially seemed to confirm that the radius increase was in fact intentional, with Pokemon Go Hub explaining “we were told this was not a bug.” Now-deleted tweets cited by Kotaku also show confirmation from inside sources that the update was working as intended.

After players started to celebrate the update as one of the best for quality of life in Pokemon Go’s recent history, showing off some densely-populated Spotlight Hour screenshots, Niantic has now said that the spawn radius increase was in fact a bug.

The update from Niantic promises that it will take player feedback on the bug into consideration when planning future patches, though the decision to reverse the update is just the latest in a series of unpopular decisions from the developer. The recent changes to Remote Raid Passes were controversial with players, with those living in rural areas, as well as disabled players pointing out that the game has only become more difficult for them to engage with as Covid-era buffs have been slowly walked back.

For now, some players are advising to turn auto-update off for the Pokemon Go app, in order to enjoy the increased spawn distance for as long as they can.