Highlights
- Niantic is facing backlash for using old character models to sell avatar items in Pokemon GO.
- Fans are upset over the major avatar update, with accusations of misleading marketing tactics.
- Negative reactions to avatar changes in Pokemon GO continue.
Some Pokemon GO fans are currently accusing the game’s developer, Niantic, of misleading its player base by using old character models in marketing images to sell avatar items. This is one of the latest developments in the controversy surrounding the recent change in avatars in Pokemon GO, which has been widely disliked by fans.
Niantic released a Pokemon GO update called “Rediscover Yourself” on April 17, which was meant to modernize the popular mobile game. As part of this update, all the character models in the game were changed, but many in the Pokemon GO community disliked the new avatars.
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Now, some Pokemon GO players are mad that Niantic is still advertising paid clothing items for the game by using the old avatar models instead of the new ones. In a post made by Entire_Pineapple4732, the gamer claims that Niantic is engaging in “misleading advertising” by using models that do not exist anymore in its ads. As an example of this practice, the gamer shared an image comparing the characters from both models, implying that they look much worse now.
While Pokemon GO is still among the best mobile games, it’s clear that fans are unhappy. Entire_Pineapple4732’s post received over 4,000 upvotes and a number of gamers agreed that Niantic is not handling the situation very well. In the post’s comments, it’s possible to see some gamers complaining about not being able to access items they already own after the recent update, or accusing Niantic of selling something that is “impossible to achieve in the game” right now, as the characters would look considerably different from the marketing image.
Pokemon Go’s New Avatar Update Was Widely Criticized By Fans
The negative reaction to the avatar change has been one of the most common topics in the Pokemon GO community in the last few weeks. Soon after the update was implemented, Pokemon GO was review-bombed by players who were unhappy with the latest avatar update, for instance.
Despite already being a few weeks old, complaints such as this one show that the repercussions of the avatar update are far from being over. To make matters worse, rumors that the Pokemon GO avatar’s update was rushed appeared online soon after the change. According to an anonymous interview with a person who allegedly helped to test the Pokemon GO update, the new avatar system was only tested for around three or four months and then rushed out of the door. It’s unclear whether this information is accurate, though, so players should take it with a grain of salt.
Pokémon GO
After a test run via an April Fools’ joke on Google Maps, Pokemon GO was released to the public in the summer of 2016. The AR mobile app saw unparalleled success and continues to be one of the largest mobile games in the world, pulling in billions for developer Niantic.
