Pokémon GO recently released update 0.275.0, which apparently doubles the radius at which obtainable Pokémon spawn. Meanwhile, player frustration is building with Niantic’s historic lack of communication. These disgruntled players are so impressed with the update, they’re assuming it was deployed on accident. But Niantic reportedly confirmed with Poké content creators that it was, indeed, on purpose.
That’s all Niantic has said publicly so far, though Kotaku reached out for further comment. The App Store “patch notes” for update 0.275.0 also keep things close to the chest, describing it obtusely as “quality-of-life updates; minor bug fixes and performance improvements.”
In actuality, the update—which bumps the augmented reality mobile game’s spawn radius from 40 meters to 80 meters—is more than a simple quality-of-life update; it makes it easier than ever for players to capture Pokémon while standing in the same spot. “Shiny hunter” players, who seek out the franchise’s pocket monsters in rare colorways, known in both Pokémon Go and everywhere else as “shinies,” will certainly benefit from this.
But update 0.275.0 is especially helpful for players living in rural areas, which rarely receive any spawns, with barely any nearby competitive gyms or PokéStop landmarks for them to utilize.
Niantic improved the rural game experience with the onset of covid-19 and global travel restrictions, making it so that players could temporarily interact with Gyms and Stops from 80 meters away instead of the original 40 meters. Once restrictions subsided, the developer went back and forth on keeping the change, but ultimately made it permanent in 2021 after plenty of community outcry.
That first fight for 80 meters, along with recent empty, bugged events and disappointing paid features, is why some Go players are skeptical of this supposedly everlasting update.
But others are embracing it, sort of.
“This is a huge win for the community!” an enthusiastic post on update site Pokémon Go Hub said. “In the event this is something Niantic will fix in a future update, we’d recommend turning off automatic updates for now, and not updating the game past version 0.275.0 until there is a new forced update.”
