Pokemon Go April 2022 Community Day Returning to Three-Hour Format, Players Want to Keep the Six-Hour Time

Trainers, the next Community Day in Pokemon Go is going live next month, in April 2022, featuring new Pokemon, new shiny forms, and very interesting bonuses. Well, that sounds great, but just when we thought this is going to be one of the best Community Day events so far, Niantic and Pokemon Go decided to ruin the fun and revert Community Day back to three hours instead of the six-hour period.

The next Community Day event is going live on April 23, 2022, featuring Stufful, the Flailing Pokemon, its shiny forms, the next exclusive attack, Special Research story Strong Stuff, event bonuses, group play bonuses, and cool stickers. At first, nothing seems to be wrong with this event, but what if I tell you that Niantic and Pokemon Go decided to reduce the event period from six to three hours window? And all of that because “they’ve found out that only five percent of the players tend to participate in the event for more than three hours.” Now, the event will run from 2 PM to 5 PM local time, instead of 11 AM to 5 PM local time.

First, they destroyed Incense, now they reduce the length of the Community Day events. This will definitely make Community Day harder to play for a lot of Pokemon Go players,

Here is the official statement:

“Community Day Adjustments

We also wanted to take a moment to discuss some changes to the Community Day format we’ll be testing. In 2020, we doubled the length of our Community Day events, extending them from three hours to six. Since then, however, we’ve found that only five percent of our Trainers tend to participate in the event for more than three hours.

One of the biggest pieces of positive feedback that we received after January’s three-hour Community Day Classic was that players and community leaders noticed how much more of the community was out and about during the event. So, for Stufful Community Day, we’re returning to a three-hour format. Our hope is that doing so will create even more opportunities for Trainers to play together and connect outside as they’re exploring.

We know that Trainers have enjoyed all of the extra resources that can be collected during longer events, so we’re adding some new and exciting perks to Stufful Community Day to give you the ability to collect just as many resources during gameplay. Check them out below!”

Now, players are furious because of this change, as this change cuts Community Day in half. Here is what the Pokemon Go community has to say about this.

“They really think we’re all idiots.”

“Not a game dev, but shouldn’t you be wanting to give people *more* time to engage with your product, not less?”

“Most trainers play less than 3 hours so we’re gonna go ahead and take away everybody’s flexibility to play when they have the time to.”

“The 6-hour window was a safety consideration, and they’re taking it away because players didn’t compromise their safety by spending all 6 hours playing? Bulletproof logic.”

“That’s a shame that comm day is going back to the 3-hour format. It was really nice to be able to choose when I’m able to play in the 6 hour comm days.”

“I feared Niantic was going to cut Community Day in half again at some point, just not THIS soon. The timing is particularly crazy because I heard several players saying that for the last several Community Days, they have gone out and played for a couple of hours but then headed home or to whatever plans they had for that day and popped an incense to grind out the rest of the time. For this past Community Day, of course, they got basically nothing during the incense period and were thinking that for the next Community Day, they would just not play at all during times they were unable to be out walking. What’s the point anymore?

Well. Now I suspect many will not be able or willing to play at all with half the timeslot we had previously.

Their logic — their justification — is WAY off base to the point that it almost seems like they’re trolling us:

Since then, however, we’ve found that only five percent of our Trainers tend to participate in the event for more than three hours.

Six hours allowed for players to squeeze in time for digital monster hunting around their other activities… around our actual LIVES, you know? Many of us were playing for 2-4 hours sometime during that six-hour time block and then carrying on with our lives with the rest of the time. Some played from 11:00 – 2:00, some from 2:00 – 5:00, some from like 11:00 – noon, and then again from 3:00 – 5:00, depending on their availability. Niantic seems to want us to plan our day around Community Day and other events most every weekend, and this is just another sign of that: play during these three specific hours — far less flexible — or don’t play at all, sucks to be you, get good lolz.

Yet another decision that I think is gonna come back to bite them in the posterior hard. But in the interim, it’s also another big slap in the face to the player base. Again, this game is NOT our life, Niantic. It’s something we fit in where we can, not something we plan every weekend around. Who is this supposed to help?”

What are your thoughts about this change? Do you agree or disagree with this decision?