Pokémon Go's recent overhaul of player avatars has the community divided over the new look and customization options. The status of the update also surprised game testers, with one revealing that these changes were likely rolled out before they were ready and won't be getting any major updates.
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In an anonymous interview with Pokémon Go journalist JRESeawolf on April 19, a player who volunteers their time to review, discuss, and occasionally test beta features for Niantic gave an inside look at how the company handled the avatar changes from their perspective. This includes a timeline that, disturbingly, puts only a few months of actual testing behind the update that many players are calling Pokémon Go's "visual doomsday" and a distinct lack of internal communication about future plans surrounding it.
According to this player, who has been in the game since the Niantic-hosted feedback group was created over two years ago, the first questionnaires about avatar updates were shared sometime in early 2023, with a full beta test rolling out to select players three to four months ago. A broader playtest went live in the Pokémon Go app in March, leading to the first public wave of complaints begging Niantic to reconsider the changes. To make matters worse, the insider says that Niantic has made “very, very little improvement [or] change since the beta compared to what we all have now.”
Several players in that feedback group were surprised to see a release date for the feature when the Rediscover Yourself update was announced, especially considering it still appeared to be an “unpolished beta.” Prior to this interview, Dot Esports shared a report confirming that Niantic is aware of the negative reactions to Pokémon Go’s avatar changes and is “taking feedback seriously.” Based on that context and additional conversations we had with JRESeawolf, it appears that Niantic implemented a short testing window for the avatar changes and pushed through them to meet an internal development deadline rather than improve the feature based on feedback.
