New Survey Leaves Pokemon Go Players Terrified for the End of Free-to-Play (& Scopely Responded)

Update: On July 24th, ComicBook received the following clarifying statement from Scopely Explore regarding the survey: “We frequently poll Trainers for input on a range of topics. We understand how important it is for Trainers to earn Poké Coins via Gyms, and we have no plans to remove that ability.” Original story appears below.

Things have slowed down a bit in Pokemon Go following the lead-up to the first-ever fully free Global Go Fest event. There’s still plenty to do, including working your way through the Timed Research to earn Professor Willow Pikachu. But in the lull between big events, a new survey suggests Scopely could be planning major changes to the game. Specifically, the survey focuses on Pokemon Gyms, with a variety of questions about how players engage with them. And one question has free-to-play fans pretty worried.

The new Pokemon Go Gym survey began circulating on July 22nd. It asks a series of questions about how players engage with Pokemon Gyms. From the looks of it, Scopely is considering some adjustments to the Gym system. Like catching Pokemon in general, battling Gyms to claim them for your team has been around from the very beginning. It’s also the only reliable way to earn PokeCoins in-game for free. And that’s why some fans fear the end of free-to-play as we know it.

New Survey Suggests Pokemon Go Could Ditch Free PokeCoins at Gyms

I first learned about the survey when one of my own Pokemon Go friends shared it with our group. Like many people, his primary takeaway was that Scopely is considering doing away with the free PokeCoin rewards from Gyms. Though the survey asks plenty of other questions about how trainers engage with the Gym system, this one is raising alarm bells. And for good reason. Those daily 50 PokeCoins from having your Pokemon defend a gym are the only reliable way to get free coins in the game, and have been since the very beginning. Some monthly Go Pass rewards have started to offer PokeCoins as well, but they’re few and far in between.

The exact wording of the survey question is “If you could no longer earn PokeCoins from Gyms, how would that affect your Gym interactions?” Asking the question at all definitely suggests Scopely has at least considered removing this reward. And unless they replace it with another way to consistently earn free PokeCoins, that could be the end of free-to-play as we know it. Without earning PokeCoins from Gyms, players would only be able to top off the in-game currency via microtransactions. No doubt a tempting move for the bottom line, but not a player-friendly one.

In the comments, many fans point out that there’s not really a compelling reason to engage with Pokemon Gyms at all without that free coin reward. Indeed, those coins are the primary reason many players (myself included) bother to defend gyms at all. In fact, many players think they’d likely stop playing Pokemon Go altogether if this source of free PokeCoins goes away. Of course, player responses on this survey will likely make that pretty clear to Scopely. Hopefully, that means it will never actually be implemented, even if the team is considering it.

Gyms haven’t changed a ton since the game first released. So, I don’t necessarily think a rework is a bad plan. But unless Scopely adds other ways to earn free in-game coins, removing them as a Gym reward is a massive blow to free-to-play players. If you want to make your opinion known, you can complete the Pokemon Go Gym survey at the Niantic Labs website here. In addition to questions about PokeCoins, the survey asks for feedback on several other aspects of Gyms, including how rural players like me engage with them. So it’s possible that something good could come out of this, even if the PokeCoin question is a scary one.

Would you still play Pokemon Go if free coins weren’t available at Gyms? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!