'Pokémon Go's remote raids are here to stay.
The game's director Michael Steranka has reassured gamers Niantic has “no intention right now of removing remote raiding for the regular tiers of raiding – one, three and five-star raids."
However, they are "looking at opportunities for players to get playing in-person again.”
Steranka added: “Our approach is generally going to be to introduce new functionality and features to promote [playing in-person], rather than retiring remote raiding, which we know players have grown to love over the past two years."
Remote raiding was introduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, players boycotted the AR mobile game - which uses mobile devices with GPS to locate, capture, train, and battle 'Pokémon in the wild - after they reverted back to needing to be close to Gyms and Pokéstops.
As a safety precaution amid the global health crisis, the game made it possible to stop at Gyms and Pokéstops from a distance.
Commenting on the backlash, Steranka insisted they "did everything we could to meet players […] where they were forced to be because of the pandemic."
However, he insisted that 'Pokémon Go' was never intended to be a remote experience.
The director added to Eurogamer: “Pokémon Go remains about exploring the world around you. I think unfortunately the pendulum swung a little bit too far to having the complete Pokémon Go experience from the comfort of your couch. And that’s just not where we want to be as a product.”
