Not too long ago, the developer Niantic promised that Exclusive Raid Battles would be coming to Pokemon GO soon, and it looks like the time is nigh for the feature's arrival in the popular augmented reality mobile title. As it so happens, after updates to the Android and iOS versions of the game were recently applied, the company has now been sending out invites in advance to the events that occur at a specific time and place in order to allow fans to coordinate with other players.

As seen in the image below courtesy of the Reddit user known as Carnilawl, one trainer's journal in Pokemon GO was updated yesterday to reflect their invite to an Exclusive Raid Battle at Water, Precious Water in Bellevue, Washington. It must be noted, however, that the player who received the invitation is not actually Carnilawl, as the Redditor mentioned further down in the thread that they shared the picture after seeing it put up on a local Discord channel.

At this point in time, it's somewhat unclear as to how Niantic is deciding exactly who gets an Exclusive Raid Pass in Pokemon GO. Other than Carnilawl, however, there are different players who are reporting that they're receiving their passes for Gyms at which they've recently completed a Raid. As it so happens, these Exclusive Raid Passes are being used for the worldwide launch of Mewtwo, which is currently the most powerful creature in the game. Furthermore, it seems as if only players with a pass for a specific Raid will be able to participate in that particular activity at the moment.

Pokemon GO's Exclusive Battle Raids are a great idea for those willing to commit time to trying to organize meet-ups with other players in larger cities, but it could prove to be a much more arduous and frustrating task in smaller communities. Those fans who received the Exclusive Raid Passes will need to be diligent about informing other trainers, as the task will definitely require a certain number of people to show up, with the risk of an integral player not being able to make it to a scheduled Raid being quite high.

Taking all of this into consideration, Niantic's testing of the feature will hopefully find a way to tweak the challenge and time windows to address any players' scheduling conflicts should they occur. Nevertheless, making such a situation work will likely prove to be a difficult balancing act on behalf of the developer.

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS.

Source: Reddit