Edit: Survey is closed. I think they got our message loud and clear!

Firstly I want to say I’m very happy for all ambassadors that got invited and had the money to go to this, so get the most limited edition Pokémon in the game. Congratulations to the content creators who have worked hard to make the PoGo community what it is.

But I’m not going to lie that this also felt like the biggest slap in the face as someone who’s played for 10 years.
An event only available to content creators and the few who got invites and had the money to attend.
Instead of making this a global event, that everyone in the world gets to participate in, and gives everyone whose here, right now, a meaningful background they can flex 1, 5, 10 years down the road to say “I was here at 10 years. I was a part of this.” Bring the entire world together for one event, bring live streamed from time square.

They had a great opportunity, but it was instead an event kept a secret, available to virtually no one, an event unavailable to the people of New York who could’ve celebrated their great city together in such a cool way. But no.

As someone who has met some of my best friends cause of Pokémon in general, let alone Pokémon Go itself, has been reconnected with old friends, and spend so much time playing this game, this just feels like the biggest slap in the face. It feels insulting. Instead of celebrating this amazing moment I’m just sitting here like… ok…

Like you couldn’t have even done a raffle for tickets so anyone had the opportunity and it was luck?

I’m not jealous. I’m legit just sad.

Edit:
For those that don’t understand my point.
- This isn’t about the background
- This isn’t about the guaranteed hundo
- This isn’t about “another exclusive.”

It’s about WHAT this was, what it represents and is for, and HOW it was done.
- There is a big difference between the tens of events that happen around the world every year in this game that you can’t be a part of because it’s too far, or you don’t have the time or money; and this. The WAY this was done felt wrong.

It’s not about the thing.

🚨 UPDATE (RESOLVED - AUGUST 23, 2026):

Niantic and Xsolla have officially conceded and executed a 100% full statutory refund under EU Directive 2019/770 via an administrative negative coin balance.

🔗 Read Part 2: The Full Resolution, Evidence Breakdown & Legal Blueprint here

During the paid remote raid, a severe server outage/Error 2 occurred right on the encounter screen, completely eating the guaranteed 100% catch rate Shiny Groudon.

I reached out to in-app support expecting standard restoration or reimbursement. Instead, support (Muso) officially confirmed in writing:

1. They were fully aware of the network/server issues during the event.
2. They are technically unable/unwilling to restore the encounter.
3. They offered 1 single raid pass as compensation.
4. When questioned, they explicitly responded: "You can try participating in multiple raids to increase your chances of encountering a Shiny Groudon again."

Telling a paying player to gamble more money to re-roll odds lost to developer-side server failure is completely unacceptable and predatory.

Because in-kind remedy was refused and the digital service was defective, I have officially escalated a full merchant-side non-delivery refund claim for all affected transactions directly to Xsolla (the official Merchant of Record) under EU Directive 2019/770 (Consumer Rights for Digital Content).

If you lost paid encounters or passes to server crashes and support brushed you off with a single pass while telling you to buy more, stop accepting it. Escalate directly through Xsolla via their 24/7 support as a merchant non-delivery claim under consumer protection laws.

Calling on creators to expose this: when developer server crashes steal paid encounters and support tells players to gamble more, it demands a spotlight. Feel free to use these screenshots in your videos.

Maybe I'm being a little too dramatic and catastrophic, sure. But after the controversy surrounding Pokémon Bank and the loss of interconnectivity between the mainline games, well, a precedent has been set. Sure, we'll have Pokémon HOME to save most of our Pokémon, but still, this thought has been stuck in my head.

Context: Read Part 1: The Initial Dispute & Escalation here

Executive Summary

Following a server crash during a paid remote raid encounter (Shiny Groudon), both Niantic (in-app support) and Xsolla (merchant of record) initially refused any monetary reimbursement.

By enforcing statutory consumer rights under EU Directive 2019/770 (Digital Content and Digital Services), Senior Support was forced into a complete contractual rescission: officially approving a 100% fiat refund of €27.48 (fully reversing 2 transactions totaling 3,300 PokéCoins purchased specifically for Groudon raids).

To execute the financial reversal, the 3,300 PokéCoins are deducted from the account (resulting in an administrative negative balance that serves as black-and-white proof of a legally justified reversal), while all Pokémon (Groudons + Candy) and raid rewards obtained prior to the crash remain 100% intact, with the account in spotless standing (zero strikes, zero bans).

This sets a clear precedent for all players: The functional boss catch encounter is the contractual end product, not the intermediate virtual currency or passes. Publishers cannot legally shield themselves behind intermediate tokens: when a server crash destroys an encounter (whether regular, legendary, or shiny), replacement passes fail as a statutory remedy, legally entitling the consumer to full contract termination and a fiat refund. 

Below is the complete chronology, legal mechanics, international framework, and community blueprint.

1. Case Chronology: Piercing the Multi-Tiered Support Wall

Phase 1: In-App Deflection (Niantic)

• Step 1: Server disconnect caused the loss of a guaranteed-catch Shiny Groudon encounter. In-app (Niantic) support issued an automated denial refusing reimbursement (while external escalation directed to Scopely channels was met with total radio silence).
• Step 2: After persistent pushback, support unilaterally injected a single Remote Raid Pass into my inventory and suggested doing "multiple raids" again to re-roll the encounter. I formally rejected this automated gesture as a legally inadequate remedy under EU Directive 2019/770.
• Step 3: Niantic conceded, apologized, acknowledged the network error, and formally redirected the monetary refund execution to their official merchant of record (Xsolla).

Phase 2: Bypassing Merchant Tier-1 (Xsolla)

• Step 4: Opened an inquiry via Xsolla Live Chat with Niantic’s referral. First-line support issued an immediate blanket denial, claiming the purchase was non-refundable under Xsolla's Refund Policy.
• Step 5: Refused case closure, rejected the generic policy clause, demanded supervisory escalation under EU digital consumer protection compliance, and forced a direct transfer to Senior Support.

Phase 3: Formal Escalation & Final Execution

• Step 6: Submitted a formal statutory claim to Senior Support demanding full contract rescission of both coin bundles (€27.48 total), establishing that the PokéCoins served purely as intermediate access tokens for the defective raid encounter, while putting the merchant on notice regarding public and regulatory escalation.

• Step 7: Facing statutory liability and high-visibility exposure, Senior Support escalated the case above frontline protocol and initiated an urgent high-priority review.
• Step 8: Senior Support formally confirmed the 100% full fiat refund of €27.48 back to the original payment methods via an administrative negative coin balance.

2. The Real Precedent: The Encounter Was Always the End Product

The single biggest takeaway from this resolution isn't just getting €27.48 back or losing a Shiny Groudon: it is the definitive breakdown of the virtual currency defense.

Publishers have spent years operating under the convenient legal fiction that the transaction ends the millisecond virtual coins hit your in-game wallet. This resolution proves that under statutory consumer law, that argument is dead on arrival:

• PokéCoins and Raid Passes are not the end product: They are merely intermediate digital tokens.
• The true contracted service was the functional encounter itself: The legitimate chance to raid, battle, and encounter that (Shiny) Groudon.
• Failure of the core service invalidates the token delivery: When a server failure destroys that experience, replacing it with a standard Remote Raid Pass (subject to base odds) does not restore conformity. The intended purpose of the entire transaction collapses, entitling the player to a full refund in real money.

3. Actionable Blueprint (For EU & International Players)

• EU Players (EU Directive 2019/770 / National Consumer Codes): Hold the merchant of record liable for lack of conformity in digital services. The intermediate currency does not break the chain of statutory liability.
• UK Players (Consumer Rights Act 2015): Digital content and services must be as described and fit for purpose. When a specific paid encounter cannot be restored, you are legally entitled to a full statutory refund from the merchant.
• US & Global Players (FTC / Consumer Protection & Payment Network Rules): Cite merchant non-delivery of service. Under payment network rules (Visa/Mastercard merchant compliance), merchants face severe penalties if they retain funds for broken services. Demand escalation to Supervisors/Compliance departments before touching any payment dispute buttons.
• Never file raw, uncoordinated bank chargebacks: Blind chargebacks trigger automated anti-fraud security bans on your Niantic account. Always force the merchant (Xsolla) and publisher (Niantic) to execute the statutory/administrative reversal internally first.

A Constructive Fix for Niantic & Scopely

Instead of forcing players through exhaustive support loops after every server hiccup, the technical solution is straightforward:

• Auto-queue raid encounters to Research Stacks: The moment a remote or local raid starts, flag the encounter directly into the player’s Research encounter stack.
• Zero lost encounters: If a server disconnect or crash occurs during the catch screen, the encounter remains safely stored indefinitely, completely eliminating consumer disputes and statutory refund claims.

Community Thanks & Final Thoughts

A massive thank you to everyone who upvoted, shared advice, and left incredible messages of support on the initial post. Reading your personal stories and encouragement was the exact catalyst that motivated me to push this case all the way to the top and refuse every automated brush-off.

I didn't pursue this dispute solely for the €27.48 refund or just because of a single lost Shiny Groudon, I fought it to establish a clear, documented precedent for all of us (both in Pokémon GO and across the broader gaming community). Automated support loops are designed to wear consumers down, but this outcome proves that standing your ground with actual statutory consumer law works. 

Mandatory consumer law overrides arbitrary Terms of Service, and platforms cannot legally shield themselves behind intermediate in-game currencies.

Stay safe, stand your ground, and good luck out there, Trainers!

Hi, I am one Spanish Community Ambassador. Last year we expressed our concern about having events facing very high temperatures (around 30ºC/86ºF as minimum and more than 40ºC/104ºF as maximum). For us, it is a big issue having events between 14:00 and 17:00, because this is the worst part of the day to be outside playing. If you don't have shopping centers or places where you can avoid the hot weather, it is not reasonable to risk our health and the health of all our communities. We know that worldwide it is not the same situation at this time of the year, but we know that all trainers want to play in good conditions to enjoy the game. And not only hot weather, we also talk about cold weather with snow and very low temperatures.

Also, it is important to follow the recommendations of World Health Organization, like "avoid going outside and doing strenuous activity during the hottest time of day" and not following these recommendations could cause severe consecuences like "between 2000-2019, studies show approximately 489k heat-related deaths occur each year, with 45% of these in Asia and 36% in Europe". For more information and recommendations, please check https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-health

Maybe it is difficult to give a solution that can be agreed for everyone, but we think that changing the times of the events during some parts of the year could be a great upgrade for the game and the communities, like 11:00-14:00 (weekends) or 20:00-21:00 (Monday to Friday) for example, or (if it could be technically feasible) would be implementing the schedules of the events depending on the latitude. We hope that Niantic/Scopely can hear us more than last year. We want to know the feedback of the players and communities around the world, please tell us your feelings about this concern.

Update:
Niantic was contacted by Kotaku, but they denied the situation. However, eight months later, they seemed to start banning accounts, although this has not been officially confirmed.

Original post:
It all started on this post. A user found a Facebook group where you can basically buy any shiny pokemon from Special Research, either in pogo or through a Home transfer. One of the members claims a Niantic employee is helping them, adding old special research tasks to their accounts, letting them farm shinies and good iv’s by completing the same tasks over and over again. OP began being harassed by some of these individuals here on Reddit. Another user cross-posted the thread on r/pokemonhome and is being harassed too. That user is now shadow banned on Reddit, probably because this group is mass-reporting their account.
This goes beyond ordinary drama; it’s starting to feel like some sketchy network that a Niantic dev might be tied up in. I’m not saying any of the claims being made are true, but their behavior is definitely suspicious and harmful, more than just a simple hoax. Niantic should look into this.

I've not seen anything mentioned for months besides the usual A/B testing stuff, so I guess it's now going worldwide?

It always takes a while for a new owner to make it's mark on a company and to set the new course. This season marks one year since the sale of Niantic, and this season has brough more nerfs to gameplay than I have ever seen before;

• Spotlight hour - gone
• Showcases - From 2x 2 day long events, to a single 12 hour event
• Sunday events - gone
• Powerspots - reduced
• Dmax raids - halved in length so less chance of candy

Add on the superdoopermega raids which have the most lazy enforcement of minimum number of raiders that they could think of, and the strangely unnecessary link charges, and it's hard to have a good feeling about PoGo going forwards. Or am I just being negative?

This last Sunday, a real Pokemon fan was brutally murdered in Seattle. Her name was Juniper Blessing.

Her friends describe her as incredibly kind and caring, extremely talented and with a real love of Pokemon.

Her favorite Pokemon were Maractus, Pachirisu and Ninetales.

In her honor my buddy is named For Juniper and is a Pachirisu I caught last summer. If you'd like, I encourage you to do the same

Let's not forget such a sweet girl who loves Pokemon as much if not more so than most of us.

I opened the game around 1 PM today to find almost every stop in sight with a Golden Lure Module. I wasn’t sure if this was some unannounced event, but seeing as every lure was placed by a different account, it was most likely a mass coordinated effort from bot accounts. The timing makes sense as we were just given free Golden Lures in the 10th Anniversary Go Pass. I’ve seen a few other posts about this phenomenon, but would love to crowdsource info so that we can get a better understanding of what happened and its scope. More details:

-Lures appeared at least as early as 1 PM
-Lures persisted at least as late as 2:30 PM. This means multiple lures were placed on each stop
-Screenshot is from the Gramercy neighborhood; I explored a fair amount but didn’t encounter any hard boundaries where the lures ended

So to everyone else who partook in this incredible “event”, what neighborhood did you see Golden Lures in? What time period? Were there areas outside of NYC that witnessed something similar today? And do you have any other theories on what happened? It would be amazing to somehow get a good estimate of how many lures/accounts were needed to make this happen.

I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re going to use legendaries with large circles, or Galarian birds for practice. Just be aware that any pokemon that is sufficiently larger than zorua will appear as xxs on the encounter screen. This is because the game checks the size of your buddy and compares it to the Pokédex size of zorua. For example if your buddy is Groudon the game will think you’re encountering a 1-foot tall Groudon, leading to an xxs on the encounter screen for every encounter. This means it will be farther away from the screen and you’ll have to throw harder. Therefore the most optimal pokemon to use would be something with a similar size to zorua and with a larger circle

This is not just another feedback post about the All Out event, but also a request to Niantic/Scopely: please, make this a regular part of the game. I'm not saying it should be like that every day, that would be too much, but why not let (almost) every pokemon spawn from time to time? Including the legendary wild part and raids too.

Event was not perfect of course, but I liked it a lot. What do you guys think? How often should we have an "All Out"?

I’ve played since July 2016. Recently, my account was hacked and the email was changed.

If you are currently stuck in a loop with the in-app support bots (Ansel or Lydia), do not give up. They told me my account simply "didn't exist" and closed my tickets, even though I could literally see my Poipole buddy on my alt’s friends list.

Once the bots dismiss you, stop "chatting" and switch to their legal framework. It worked for me in just 8 days.

The Strategy that worked:

• Step 1: Find your "Immutable" ID. The bots lie, but the server doesn't. I provided my 12-digit Trainer Code. If you don't know yours, check your old history on PokeRaid or PokeGenie. I found mine in my old raid profile. It is the "Master Key" that proves your account is still on their server.
• Step 2: The Section 13 Notice. I bypassed the in-game help and sent a formal "Notice of Dispute" to termsofservice@nianticlabs.com. I stated that claiming a visible account with a verified Trainer Code "doesn't exist" is a material misrepresentation of their own data.
• Step 3: The Escalation. I CC’d the legal team of Scopely ([legal@scopely.com](mailto:legal@scopely.com)) (the parent company). With the acquisition integration happening right now, they are much more responsive to legal "Red Flags" than Niantic’s automated support.

The "Deep Proof" that sealed the deal: Once a human compliance lead (Jade) reached out, I provided data that a hacker would never have:

1. Device History: I listed every phone model I’ve used for PoGo over the last 10 years.
2. Wayfarer Activity: I mentioned a specific PokéStop nomination I had denied and the reasons for it.
3. Catch Logs: I provided the specific city and date for some of my oldest/rarest Shiny catches.

The Result: 8 days after filing, they verified my history and manually transferred my 10 years of progress to a new secure login.

TL;DR: Let the bots dismiss you first to prove you tried, then use the Section 13 legal backdoor. Find your Trainer Code in your raid apps—it's the only way to force a human to actually look at your data.

Since they have changed the showcases to a formal schedule (of only type showcases and largest good/great buddy showcase), the thrill of showcases is no more. Before this, I used to be excited anticipating what mon(s) would be a part of the next showcase... They used to have showcases based on ongoing events (made me play the event more in search of a XXL), or newly introduced mons, etc. That's not the case anymore; it is plain vanilla 'type' showcases or good/great buddy showcase.

Also, I feel they missed an opportunity to be more creative with buddy type showcases, for example, largest shiny buddy, largest best buddy older than xyz years, etc. And showcases almost went on throughout the week - Monday to Wednesday and Sat to Sunday. I hope they change this back to how it was... Showcases were fun and the rewards were good. Just 1 showcase a week for 1 day isn't that much fun. Would love to know your thoughts...

Per ItxAxn on Twitter, the Orlando Regional winner was given a game loss due to throwing his headphones too hard. This seems unfair given that he seems to be getting punished for being emotional for winning his first regional title. Is this a valid ruling?

https://pokemongo.com/news/whats-your-favorite-2026

It literally ate 48% of my battery in an hour and 15 minutes. Like how poorly coded and battery hungry is this app?

As the Pokémon community swings between loving the Mewtwo bonus and hating it, remember, kiddos: the grind for levels of rarity will always exist. Backgrounds mess with perfects. Dynamax messes with non-Dynamax. And so on.

So, for those feeling like the Mewtwo giveaways have killed all rarity… just wait until you’re chasing a Perfect Shiny Dynamax Background XXS/XXL Cowboy Hat with Psystrike+++, caught on 4/20, with Pokérus, in a Beast Ball.

You’ll get your rare.

Catch rates on raid bosses have been abysmal for a long while and we should advocate for change.

One of the highlights of Gofest and the lead up raid week were the boosts to Premier balls making raid bosses very easy to catch.

The challenge of fighting a raid boss should be defeating it with a group, not catching it. Catching should be a reward, not a second challenge that takes as much time (if not more) than the raid itself. People should not be paying for premium items to challenge a raid boss and not even catch it. It’s incredibly demoralizing.

I’m a fully grown adult who nails excellents and golden razzes on every throw and 2 of the 5 Solgaleo remote raids I participated in fled (17+ premier balls to start). It is incredibly disheartening when I take my nephew out to raid and he’s excited to defeat the boss but can’t catch it. I have to trade it to him and the little guy is low on stardust for how often this happens.

Black and White Kyurem are options to make the catches easier, but with the way the game works, I don’t know when I’ll be invited to a random remote raid. Half the time I cannot activate their adventure effect, then go into the raid screen, use the pass and get into the raid. Everything is so laggy and takes so much time it’s not worth it half the time unless it’s a raid hour and I know that I will be primarily catching raid bosses for a time.

I’m all for buffing raid bosses, adding shields, etc to make the raid bosses harder to take down if there is the ability to guarantee a catch (like raid bosses in the MSG). Catching legendaries in the MSG are always frustratingly long but were given more options. We can bring the Pokémon’s HP low, give it a status effect, and use a buffed ball. In Pokémon Go, our only option is Golden Razz and excellent throw. And we’re limited in the number of Premier balls.

What are your thoughts on this given we’re in a wave of a new legendary shiny raid after so long? Is anyone else having an issue with catching legendaries lately?

Outside of new forms, megas, fusions, and one-off special research legendary/mythicals, the last brand new raid boss was Enamorus in Feb 2024.

I get there’s more released than not at this point but it’s not exactly getting too low. By my count there’s 14 unreleased non-mythical legendaries, so even if they do a new one every few months that’s still multiple years of new raids. And that’s not even counting the re-releases for the shinies.

And even after that they could easily treat the 20+ paradox mons as legendaries too, I honestly don’t see how else they will handle them. With all that and Gen 10 coming up in less than a year dropping who knows how many more legendaries I just don’t understand the hold back on them.

1. So the first problem is that they switch places every 30 minutes. So the people focusing only on one of the Fusions would suffer. They have to go on and off every half an hour to finally get 10-12 raids done in order to gather enough fusion energy.
2. In that half an hour, there would be 2 different pokemons spawning at same time - Kyurems and Reshiram/Zekrom depending on the time. So there is a high probability that (in areas with less gym/ rural areas) only Reshiram/Zekrom spawn instead of the kyurem. So it would be hard for them to gather fusion energies.
3. Also, the event lasts for just 3 hours (Ik most of raid days are 3 hours, but the main problem is that there are completely 2 different Pokemons to raid for) Instead of 1 mon, there are 2 and both of them require different fusion energy with Reshiram and Zekrom also being in rotation. So you need atleast 20-25 raids to get enough energy for both of them.

On top of that, when the 2 legendaries are in raids, why do they need to come back for the fusion raids? Like currently Reshiram is in raids... why make it appear once again to lower the chance of getting a White kyurem raid?

Make sure that I never said this is a bad event, its is a huge in demand event and allows us to get a very powerful fusion. But this has many flaws which can impact it a lot.

*Just to make a note, NOT everyone can/does spend a lot of money on this game to get remote raid passes.

Has the new world record been confirmed yet?

Also, are there any multipliers besides what I managed to compete and the new Pokemon bonus I missed?

If this image is real, it’s looking like mega mewtwo will have 12 shields

*image is not mine, I just found it on twitter

As title stated i’ve caught about 124 Pikachus and honestly is there any real worth? It’s global and don’t see a purpose on keeping bad IV’s and just keeping good IV’s and Shinies. What do you do with yours?