‘Pokemon GO’ Rumors: Breeding To Be Made Available Before Trading?

With over half the month of January behind, Pokemon GO rumors have shifted from the legendary first generation Pokemon still missing to the next big holiday, Valentine’s Day. Niantic Labs first introduced events back in October prior to Halloween. The success gave the app the boost it needed to see revenue push to around $950 million according to a Venturebeat report from App Annie.

What possibly could be in store for Pokemon GO when it comes to Valentine’s Day? The data miners over at The Silph Road uncovered gender specific Pokemon in December. In particular, players are rumored to be seeing differences in Pikachus they have caught. The site iTech states they have had multiple sources say female Pikachu have been seen with the end of the tail shaped like a heart. The male version is said to be the thunder shape.

What could this mean for the Valentine’s Day event? Breeding has been a part of Pokemon since very early on. It is thought that with the Valentine’s Day event breeding might be introduced. Considering that trading has long been rumored to be on its way, this comes as somewhat of a surprise. Nothing has been substantiated by Niantic or The Pokemon Company, but to this point, the data miners have rarely been wrong.

Pokemon GO rumors continue to persist about when and where the likes of Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, and Mewtwo will be made available. The January update did not give any hints, but it was the first time that new moves have been added according to another Silph Road report. Some of the moves include Bullet Speed and Heavy Slam.

As 2017 begins, it will be difficult for The Pokemon Company to match the success of 2016. The 20th Anniversary of Pokemon cannot help but be considered one of the most successful celebrations in the history of toys and gaming.

Pokemon GO won numerous app of the year awards. As mentioned before, it earned $950 million helping The Pokemon Company, Niantic, and specifically Nintendo to better profits than originally anticipated. It did all of this despite only being available six months of the year.

Pokemon GO wasn’t the only Pokemon game in 2016. The re-release of the original Pokemon games for the Nintendo Gameboy saw huge success on the Nintendo 3DS. Both Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Red still rank in the top five of software sold on Nintendo’s eShop charts according to Nintendo Everything. Pokemon Blue is at number nine. It should be noted that these three versions of the game released in early 2016.

Not to be outdone on Nintendo’s handheld, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon both released on the 3DS in November. As of this week, the two complementary titles have sold more than 4.5 million units. This makes it the fastest selling game in Nintendo’s storied history including the company mascot Mario according to Forbes.

To illustrate just how popular Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon have been, Nintendo sold 7.4 million units of first party software in 2016. Over half were these games. They were only out one and a half months.

Other anniversary events of 2016 included special expansions of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. There were 15 special sets in all. Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard, and Pikachu EX boxes were available along with 11 Mythical Pokemon sets.

With all this said, Pokemon GO has been attributed to the main contributor to the success in 2016. If it is up to Niantic the game will continue to evolve with updates. They have stated they have planned for this game to extend ten years. With six more generations of Pokemon still available to catch, there is no reason to see why this isn’t possible.

If the Pokemon GO rumors are true, are you okay with seeing breeding before trading? Would you rather see the rest of legendary Pokemon first? Let us know.

[Feature Image by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]