Pokemon Go players are buzzing today over the release of legendary Pokemon Mewtwo at the Yokohama, Japan, event, which according to Niantic allowed “thousands” of players to grab the critter.
“In the coming weeks, you, too, will have the opportunity to battle and catch Mewtwo with the new Exclusive Raid Battle feature,” Niantic says.
“Exclusive Raid Battles are similar to existing Raid Battles, with a few notable differences. Exclusive raids will periodically appear at Gyms around the world; however, unlike existing raids, Trainers will be invited to join an Exclusive Raid Battle. To receive an invitation to participate in an Exclusive Raid Battle, Trainers must have successfully completed a raid recently, by defeating the Raid Boss, at the Gym where the Exclusive Raid Battle will be taking place. The invitations will include advance warning of when the Exclusive Raid will take place, giving them ample time to coordinate with other Trainers before taking on the powerful Raid Boss.”
Players on Reddit, however, aren’t thrilled about the announcement, citing concerns for rural players (who already face serious issues when it comes to finding raid partners outside of big cities), for students whose “home” location isn’t where they actually spend most of their day, and also for people who have this thing called “jobs” and can’t be on call 24-7 for Pokemon raiding invites on an incomprehensible studio-dictated schedule. One Redditor put it into perspective: “This is just a freaking mobile game.”
Moreover, it appears Mewtwo’s stats have been tweaked, causing consternation among players and dataminers alike. I’ll let MOP’s POGO expert Andrew Ross explain:
“Niantic hasn’t targeted any specific, single Pokemon’s base stats before, just rebalanced its overall formula for translating the main series stats into stats that fit this game. Doing this to a traditionally ultra-powerful ‘mon like Mewtwo means Niantic’s changed its core approach to the series, which may have long term ramifications.”
