Niantic say City Safari format is a direct result of Trainer feedback

The Pokémon GO Community has experienced a range of in-person events that are getting better and better every time. These have expanded to four main formats, with GO Fest, GO Tour, GO Wild Area and the City Safari all taking place across a calendar year.

The most recent in-person events were the City Safari events. These took place in Milan, Singapore, Santiago and Mumbai. These debuted a brand new Pokémon, Mudbray, as well as re-introduced the very popular Explorers Hat Eevee.

At the City Safari in Milan, esports.gg spoke to Niantic's Lena Cillis and Doc Preuss about Pokémon GO's live events.

Of the four current live-event formats, the City Safari is a bit of a standout. The event is much more focused on catching and exploring, rather than raiding for major Legendary/Mega Pokémon like Necrozma, Mega Rayquaza or Black and White Kyurem.

Niantic say that this format is designed to be a lot more flexible, allowing events to be held easily all over the world.

"I would say coming from the  more classical event formats that we traditionally do like GO Tour, GO Fest, we were definitely looking for feedback from the community. So we definitely saw the hunger for something a bit more lightweight and also something that can actually cater to pretty much any city worldwide. So that's why we came up with City Safari being a format that can be really applied to any city. That's the beauty of it!

"Also because City Safari has this city-wide approach where we really want to make sure that we  can send people out into the city to explore. We really see a lot of international folks traveling in for these kind of live events so it's really nice to give them the opportunity to explore a city like Milan or  any other city in the world."

With a format that can go to a whole range of cities, how do Niantic select where to host City Safari events?

"It's a combination of so many factors to be honest. So first of all, obviously we want to listen to the community and we want to go where the community is. That's one of the factors. And then what we also want to make sure is that the city is accessible so people can easily travel in, but also the city itself should be accessible, it is safe to explore the city, it is safe to walk around and really enjoy and have a carefree day."

Niantic were keen to emphasise how important player feedback is after live events. Attendees are routinely surveyed and feedback is used to help shape future events.

Of course, saying feedback is listened too is a lot easier to say than to do. No one will ever say that customer feedback is ignored. So, what changes have directly been made by Niantic as a result of this feedback?

"City Safari as an entire format is definitely as a result of these surveys. We learned through feedback that people really liked the city-wide approaches. At first we weren't 100 % sure because our more classic event formats were always the entire day in the park like we did back in the days with GO Fest.

"But, when we opened up these events to having a more hybrid approach we got a lot of feedback that people really enjoyed it. This was because they were actually able to explore the city they were in! We don't only have locals attending the events, but people are here in Milan from as far as the United States for instance.

"So the whole City Safari format is as a direct result of feedback!"

Niantic were tight lipped about any specifics on Max Battles featuring in future events. They were absent from the latest set of Pokémon GO City Safari events despite being in the game for almost a year. At the time of publishing, there are also no announced Max Battle for Pokémon GO Fest - although there could be a tie in with Zacian and Zamazenta.

Doc Preuss did say that the struggles of more remote communities in the Max Battle system is being looked at by Niantic. With no remote option, some players are finding the feature inaccessible.

"It's a great question. I know it's something that's on the team's radar. For now, I would recommend finding your local community. Hopefully, having a community ambassador. If you don't have one nearby, you might want to become one and start to collect people so that you can take on the Gigantamax Max Battles. Because it is a lot more fun with more people, for sure."

Both Lena and Doc will be shifting focus after the City Safari events to this summers Pokémon GO Fest. Details are being announced slowly, but we know that we are getting Volcanion as well as the return of Zacian and Zamazenta.

Just how excited should Trainers be for this summers GO Fest events?

"I'm always a 10 out of 10" says Doc, "We already know about Volcanion.  It's the only fire and water type Pokemon that exists today. So I'm definitely going to get one of those. I'm very excited for it."

Lena rates her excitement a little bit higher however! "Working directly on GO Fest Paris, I would say for me it's probably a 20 out of 10... at least!

"We definitely see  that people and trainers are just as excited. I mean, we went on stage with our early bird tickets and they were gone so fast.  That was definitely a record for all of the regions. So definitely a lot of excitement on the other side.  So  we are really looking forward to this summer!"

As always, Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest esports news and more Pokémon GO updates.