Pokemon Go is now available on iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)
UPDATE: Unfortunately for those in attendance at Comic-Con, no legendary birds were to be found in Hall H this afternoon. According to Comicbook.com, when asked about the legendary Pokemon, John Hanke, head of Niantic, said, “If I could summon a Pokemon for you here right now, I would…We’re working hard. We haven’t rolled the game out everywhere yet, we’re adding countries every day. We’re gonna get there, but there’s no new Pokemon here today.”
Hanke explained that the rare Pokemon like Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos are not currently in the game, but they will be showing up soon enough. He also implied some Pokemon beyond the initial set could be added at a later date.
Pokemon Go players at San Diego Comic-Con today may be the first to capture a legendary Pokemon.
A new rumor suggests that the game’s first ever legendary Pokemon will spawn at Comic-Con on Sunday afternoon during a panel hosted by Niantic, the game’s developer. Fans had previously theorized this might be the case, but prominent YouTuber Philip DeFranco said on Twitter that “a little birdie” told him these rumors were indeed correct.
When Pokemon Go was first released, fans immediately drove themselves crazy trying to figure out how they could capture Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos. At the moment, they don’t seem to be available in the game at all. But a player later discovered that the birds do appear in the game’s source code, implying that there would soon be a way to capture them.
From there, fans began to speculate that the game’s creators might save the first spawn of the legendary birds for some major event, perhaps for a tournament of the three teams associated with the birds. But the Comic-Con panel is really the first major Pokemon Go related event since the game launched, and so using this as an opportunity to unveil a legendary makes perfect sense.
In addition to Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos, Mew and Mewtwo are not currently attainable in Pokemon Go. A full list of all the rarest Pokemon in the game can be read here.
The Pokemon Go panel is entitled “Re-Imaging Reality: Bringing Games Into the Real World With Ingress and Pokemon Go,” and it begins at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time in Hall H. It was actually originally scheduled to take place in a much smaller room, but it was expanded due to the overwhelming popularity of the game.