Pokémon GO Is Refusing To Let Long-Time Players Come To Its Birthday Party

Mobile game mega-hit Pokémon GO never misses a chance to make an inexplicably dreadful decision. Its latest comes with the celebration of the game’s eighth birthday, where it has made the bizarre decision to refuse to allow access to long-time players who completed one specific quest back in 2020.

Every year, POGO celebrates its anniversary with a few in-game events, some free, some premium. For 2024, the “Pokémon GO’s 8th Anniversary Party” offers a bunch of features, including a way to encounter Meltan without a Mystery Box, a range of recycled monsters wearing party hats, some bog-standard Timed Research tasks (both free and paid), and the main highlight, a $5 Masterwork Research called Whispers in the Woods featuring shiny Celebi. (Oh, and in a choice that feels far too on the nose, the only new Pokémon to gain a party hat this year are Grimer and Muk.)

Whispers in the Woods is a new, super-long quest that will end with players receiving one of the ultimate chase Pokémon, a shiny Celebi. But along the way it also offers an impressive 153 Ultra Balls, three Super Incubators, a Poffin, some Rare Candies, Lure Modules, TMs, Battle Passes, a chunk of XP and Stardust, and more besides. Even leaving aside the Celebi, this is a mighty haul of in-game items for five bucks. Just the incubators alone would usually cost you more.

Which makes it quite the most astonishing discovery that anyone who happened to complete the Distracted By Something Shiny Special Research in the covid year of 2020 isn’t allowed to take part. The option to by a ticket is just grayed out in the shop, with the unhelpful message, “You already have a ticket for this event, or have an active or completed Research that disqualifies you from being able to purchase this ticket.”

Visit the blog for the event, and you’re informed in a footnote,

Trainers who completed the Distracted by Something Shiny Special Research story will not be able to purchase this Masterwork Research story.

There’s no reason given, and we’ve not yet heard back from Niantic in response to our asking why. Now, it’s likely something to do with the Gen II mythical Pokémon being an extra-special, unique creature, rather than one among many of its kind, a la Pikachu or Charizard. But then, this is already entirely undermined by allowing players to have both a regular and a shiny version of the monster, so, you know, what?

Complaining about not being able to give Niantic another five bucks at a time when POGO has been allowed to become quite so rotten might seem a little strange, but it’s because it only exacerbates the frustrations. There’s so little of any substance to do in the game of late, and the paltry events that do show up that would previously have been free are now paid-for, while recent Masterworks have been so inconceivably massive as to be unmanageable. (Glimmers of Gratitude, for instance, requires you to capture an eye-watering 492 Pokémon from each of the first four regions, for its first stage of seven.)

Whispers In The Woods would finally be a more manageable event to enjoy, with a cool Pokémon at the end (and the chance to catch a shiny Celebi with better stats than perhaps you received before), and a ton of super-useful in-game items for a relatively cheap price. Refusing access to those who are committed to the game enough to have been playing for over four years is a wildly stupid decision, and a far more galling one given it would be worth buying even if it just refused you the Celebi at the end.

As we mentioned, we’ve contacted Niantic to ask what’s up. In the meantime, long-time players, enjoy—er—catching a Muk with a hat. Weeeeeeee.

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