Niantic seemingly gives up on revamping Pokemon Go’s PokeCoin system

Paul Cotton

Niantic have been testing an alternative Pokemon Go Pokecoin system for several months. They have now announced those tests will be discontinued and subsequently revert to the original system.

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“Based on Trainer feedback and collected data, this PokéCoin-rewards test will be discontinued in all test countries (Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan),” Niantic revealed via an update on the official Pokemon Go blog.

“The PokéCoin-rewards system in those countries will revert to the existing system on Thursday, November 5, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time.” That existing system is the one most trainers have come accustomed to.

Pokemon Go Gym Coins
Defending gyms is currently the only way to get PokeCoins without buying them in Pokemon Go…

Keeping gyms relevant

Judging by the majority of feedback, trainers enjoy the simplicity of leaving a Pokemon on a gym to earn their 50 Pokecoins for the day. For those of you who don’t know, you earn one PokeCoin for every 10 minutes you have a ‘mon defending a gym.

That means to earn the maximum of the 50 coins you’ll need one on there for 8 hours and 20 minutes. That sounds difficult but over time gyms have become less competitive and you can often get the full amount in one attempt.

The system that was being tested gave trainers additional ways to earn those PokeCoins. Despite Niantic’s best intentions though, trainers were quick to criticize the new system and some cynics even believed it was a way for Niantic to sneakily increase revenues from die-hard players.

There’s always two sides to a story, however. Some trainers believed the new proposed PokeCoin system was actually more inclusive. The logic behind this was it would help trainers in competitive gyms areas but as mentioned above these areas are becoming less frequent.

Future changes to come?

It looks like the majority of trainers have got their way in regards to the old PokeCoin system, at least for the moment. Niantic didn’t close the book entirely on adjusting the system, saying: “We appreciate Trainers’ participation in the test, and we’ll continue to look for ways to improve how players can earn PokéCoins.” Hopefully the next one will be more popular.