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‘Pokemon GO’ Update: Gym Overhauls And A Long-Overdue Legendary Event

By Simon Alvarez
Published on: 14:58 PST, Mar 5, 2017

Pokemon GO might have lost a significant number of players since its phenomenal launch last year, but it remains as one of the most prolific games currently available in the mobile market. With constant updates from Niantic, the augmented reality title has pretty much maintained its allure among dedicated Pokemon fans. Its most recent update, for one, provided players with a chance to capture special Pikachus in the wild. Apart from this, Niantic has also revealed that it would only be a matter of time before a Legendary Pokemon event would be rolled out.

Currently, PoGO is just about to end its Pokemon Celebration event, which allowed players to hunt and capture Pikachus with festive hats in the wild, according to a report from The Express. Just like the Holiday Pikachus last December, the monsters captured during the ongoing event would keep their festive hats as long as they are with the player. Thus, even after evolving, the rare Pikachus would still be one-of-a-kind.

While the premise of holiday-themed Pikachus might seem a bit underwhelming to numerous players, the ongoing event nonetheless heralds other, more prominent and far more significant updates that are set to come to the hit mobile game. For one, a report from WIRED, featuring an interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke, outlined the developer’s plans for the augmented reality mobile title this year.

For one, the Niantic CEO stated that the game would see a massive update in the form of an overhaul to the game’s existing Gym System. Considering that Hanke all but confirmed that the Gym update would be huge, there is a good chance that numerous features that have long been requested might finally be making their way to the game.

Among these features is a trading system and player-vs-player battles, features of classic Pokemon games which were notably absent in Pokemon GO. If speculations prove true and Niantic does roll out PvP and trading this year, PoGO would be one step closer to be becoming the ultimate Pokemon experience for the franchise’s fans.

What is particularly interesting is the fact that during the interview, Hanke stated that the Gym System overhaul would be the first of three major updates that would be happening in 2017. With this in mind, numerous Pokemon GO fans from online forums such as Reddit have speculated that Niantic might roll out the rest of Gen 2 and the Legendary monsters from both Generations 1 and 2 to the game. Just like PvP and trading, the introduction of legendaries and even more Gen 2 creatures would definitely rekindle interest in the game.

Perhaps the biggest revelation from the WIRED interview, however, is the Niantic CEO’s statement that Legendary Pokemon would finally be making an appearance in the game sometime this year. Legendaries have long been rumored for a rollout in Pokemon GO, but so far, Niantic has held out on the extremely rare and powerful creatures’ release.

Rumors are high that the Pokemon GO legendary event might happen sometime in the Summer, especially since the augmented reality mobile title relies on its players actually walking from place to place in order to progress in the game. Considering the work that players would need to invest in order to capture a Legendary creature, a Summer event appears to be the most logical choice for Niantic.

Despite losing some of the fire that made it a worldwide phenomenon during its initial launch, Pokemon GO is persistently holding on. Just recently, the augmented reality title managed to reach the $1 billion mark in revenue, the first for a mobile game that has been in the market for but a few months. With more content, features, and events on the way, Pokemon GO would most likely get even more prolific this year.

[Featured Image by Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images]

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