Back in October 2022, a Pokémon GO event called the Shuppet Spotlight Hour took place, with a "special" surprise for people who participated. Niantic ended up cancelling this special surprise at the last minute, but not before those in the GMT +13 time zone in Australia and New Zealand saw it, which meant that the surprise was spoiled.
The surprise was supposed to be an encounter with the Pokémon Zorua, but a bug meant that Zorua would take its moveset, CP, and height from your Buddy Pokémon, allowing some trainers to catch a very beefy Zorua indeed. In response, Niantic removed the ability to actually use or trade the Pokémon, and cancelled the surprise for everyone else, although the Shuppet Spotlight Hour event still went on as otherwise planned.
On 15 November 2022, Niantic issued an apology to Pokémon GO players in the form of a free item bundle, which contained the following:
- Star Piece x1
- Poké Ball x20
- Lure Module x1
The Zoruas that exist in players' inventories already have had their stats corrected, too, which means that Zorua can now be used in the Battle League, traded, or transferred to Pokémon HOME.
Many players were unimpressed by Niantic's gesture. TrippySubie on Reddit described the offering as "a piece of tree bark, a salt packet from McDonalds, and a bottle cap,” and Dengarsw on the same thread said that they were hoping for something more useful, "like Incense [or] a Lucky Egg." FunTooter put it more simply: "This is the most useless crap."
Not all fans are disappointed, though. After all, most players didn't even get a chance to catch Zorua in the first place. Many people are pointing out that a free box of items is better than no apology at all, and others are quite glad to have a star piece for free.
Have you been affected by the Zorua debacle? Are you unbothered by it all, and just happy to get free stuff? Tell us in the comments below!
Comments 20
For players not familiar with the game economy.
That's 20 Poké Balls for 20 attempts at capturing a wild Pokémon.
A premium item worth 80 coins that provides a half hour of gaining 50% extra stardust when earning stardust.
And premium item worth 100 coins that provides a half hour of Pokémon spawning near a Poké Stop.
The issues surrounding the launch of Zorua prevented players from using their Go Plus accessories for days, which can impact a player's ability to acquire items from Poké Stops.
Pokemon Go fans are never happy, one of the whiniest communities I've ever been a part of.
Free rewards are nice and better than nothing already, but it also can depend on how valuable they are. A good apology means they should be at a acceptable level without being too little or too much. I guess?
If they're fine, nothing to complain about. Otherwise, complaints are fair, no?
The only other problem they can run into is that this can be a very subjective issue and rewards can always look very different to even just two different people. That's just a big issue they can't help fully.
But they should be fair to their players.
I don't play Pokemon Go, so I have no idea. But I hope they gave the right apology and with it, the right free rewards.
@Rob3008
That's because Niantic are doing a really bad job of running their game.
It's not just a matter of giving the players less over time, or repeated service failures or mistakes running events, or questionable design choices when introducing Pokémon, but also that they're ramped up the costs in the in-game shop.
Removed - trolling/baiting
Yay free Pokemon balls! 😁
@Rob3008 I'm no longer part of that community, but my experience was quite the opposite. Met a lot of wonderful people and lifelong friends. The whining you see online is a direct result of Niantics anti-consumer stance. They go out of their way to aggressively monetize each aspect of the game at the direct expense of the user experience. They aren't shy about it either. Point is, they don't treat their fanbase well at all, and will go against them if they think they can make an extra dollar in the process (which is always).
Keeping up with all the craziness of Pokemon Go has probably given me more entertainment than actually playing it ever would.
Star Piece and Lure Module aren't too bad but 20 pokeballs sounds like an insult. I'd be happier with 10 ultraballs
Wahh my free items in a free game aren't good enough! Wahh!
@Rob3008 Whiney yes but the complaints are very valid. The scale back poke stop distance and the reduced time for community days were awful moves that made the game worse, and that's just a few of the asinine decisions that Niantic has made to worsen the player experience in the past two years alone.
At the end of the day the game is free. I can't complain about a free app not working correctly. As a veteran Go Player, everything in POGO is circular. The event will return.
I hope an update that let me to buy another potions and no only max potions, because many Pokemon mine are hurt and get potions in he Poke stops (gym specially) is very tired...
Or, an update that includes any form of Pokemon center to heal Pokemon...
I play, but am not elitist enough to be upset by this.
All Pokemon fans are going to feel this way when they start playing Scarlet/Violet soon.
@Rob3008 Sometimes when a lot of people complain it's for a valid reason.
Why is this a story? 😂😂 "Fans of game are disappointed" would be a headline every day, in that case.
@Rob3008 So you are a part of it.
@hypercoyote I am indeed.
Hey now, Bottle Caps are actually valuable in Pokemon.
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