Pokemon GO fans have been bracing for the worst ever since Saudi-backed publisher Scopely officially bought out developer Niantic for $3.5 billion, but one of the game's leads has now tried to assure everyone that, no, Pokemon GO won't turn into a mobile nightmare.
Niantic has been going strong for over a decade with free-to-play hits like Pokemon GO, Monster Hunter Now, and Pikmin Bloom, which all obviously have in-game storefronts and some ads but are otherwise completely enjoyable without spending a dime. Scopely's biggest games, including the mammoth that is Monopoly Go, can't exactly make the same claims, however.
So when asked about whether intrusive ads or restricted playtimes will creep into Pokemon Go, in an interview with Polygon, senior product director Michael Steranka said "definitely no... not now, not ever." He goes on to claim that Scopely "recognizes how unique the game is," and the publisher has apparently told Niantic developers "they would be foolish to try to change the recipe of what's made this such a huge hit."
"So yeah, absolutely not," Steranka continued. "We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that. I just really want to reiterate Scopely as a company, the way that they operate is they give all of their teams the agency to make the decisions that’s right for their games. And that is not something that we feel would ever be right for Pokémon GO."
Not having to worry about ads popping up just before catching a Pokemon you've spent all day hunting is well and good, but it's still just half the problem. There's no guarantee that Scopely can't push for microtransactions that are predatory in other ways in the future (like having cooldowns for egg incubators or paywalled gym battles) because, well, just look at its list of games. Plus, big publishers have more often than not proved that they're not in the business to make players happy. That's all without mentioning the fact that there's now one more big company that has access to frankly too much geolocation data from across the globe.
We can keep our fingers cross for Pokemon GO for now. In the meantime, check out why Pokemon Legends Z-A could be breaking years of tradition to get a 10+ age rating.
