‘Pokemon Go’ is available for iOS and Android devices. (Niantic)
Pokemon Go fans around the world are getting their hands on new Pokemon, and these players are already hungry for more. When is the game going to receive its next major update?
Niantic Labs, the app’s developer, tends to release updates on a bimonthly basis. Based on their recent schedule, then, we are due for some sort of update this coming week, on or around Wednesday, December 21st. The previous update was released on Wednesday, December 7th.
This most recent update to the game was relatively minor, although it implemented some behind the scenes changes that allowed for the new Pokemon to be unveiled a few days later. The update itself gave players the ability to transfer more than one Pokemon to Professor Willow at the time, which makes getting rid of creatures in bulk far more convenient than ever before. Also, Pokemon type icons were added to the gym battle screen.
But the next update is more highly anticipated than usual because there is speculation that Niantic may use it to start rolling out a Christmas event. We already got something similar last week with the launch of festive, Santa-hat-wearing Pikachu, but it will be a little surprising if that is the extent of things considering that the Thanksgiving and Halloween events actually offered XP and candy bonuses that were far more valuable than a Santa hat.
Plus, with both Halloween and Thanksgiving, the event was launched the Wednesday before the holiday, and this new update just so happens to be expected to fall on the Wednesday before Christmas.
In a recent newsletter, Niantic cryptically suggested that there’s at least one more event to come before the end of the year. They closed the email by writing, “That’s all for now. Look for another update from us in a few weeks. You may even get a special message from Professor Willow.”
Don’t worry: when they write that another update is coming in a few weeks, they’re likely referring to the newsletter itself, not the updates released for the game. But whether it’s coming on the 21st and whether it’s related to Christmas, the company saying that Professor Willow has a special message for us pretty much confirms there’s something on the way in the coming days.
In recent months, special events have helped to draw players back into Pokemon Go as the hype surrounding the free-to-play mobile app has died down. Of course, the most obvious way to bring players back in is to launch the second generation of Pokemon, but it seems that Niantic plans to do so in phases rather than all at once; they recently released a handful of generation two Pokemon, but only some of the baby creatures. These new Pokemon can also only be obtained by hatching eggs. Presumably, the second generation release will be staggered throughout the next few months.
Pokemon Go is now available for iOS and Android devices.
Read more about Pokemon Go in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com:
