Pokemon Go developer Niantic has announced that they have increased spawn rates, saying “Trainers, we’ve observed increased numbers of Pokémon sightings in parks and other outdoor locations in urban and rural areas.” It is unclear at this time exactly what this means, and if this change is permanent, but it will be good news to players who have felt that their location might be detrimental to their enjoyment of the game.
Pokemon Go relies on the user’s actual, physical location and uses cell phone traffic data to determine spawn patterns, locations, and frequency. This has led to a lot of complaints from players who live in more rural areas of the world, saying that players in cities are flooded with Pokemon that they feel are much more rare where they live. The addition of a tracking system that is based around Pokestops, which are also rarer in more rural settings, only added fuel to the fire.
This is a definitely unique issues for Pokemon Go, but it’s one that many players have offered various solutions to. Niantic has made a few adjustments over the last few months, but little has been done to truly fix the problems for rural players. This new spawn rate increase might be a good step toward that, but until it takes full effect, and players can gather all the relevant information, it is important to remain skeptical.
The notice also doesn’t mention anything about the rarity of the Pokemon that will have their spawns increased. Sure, it will be nice to catch more Pokemon, but if they are all Pidgeys and Rattatas then most players will end up feeling frustrated. This far into the game, most players are looking for the more rare Pokemon when they’re out catching, so it will be good to see if those rarer characters are seen more frequently now.
