Following the appearance of the generation 3 starters Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip in an ad from the Apple Watch App Store yesterday, the developerNiantic has now officially shared the newsthatPokemon GOwill give players the chance to hunt down these and other Hoenn region monsters in the game starting later this week. Building on this announcement, the company has also confirmed that the popular augmented reality title will have an in-game holiday event later on in December.
This much was revealed to TechCrunch by Niantic’s Global Product Marketing Lead, Archit Bhargava, who explained that the developer aims to start the event on or around December 21. However, Bhargava failed to share specific details regarding the forthcoming feature, leaving manyPokemon GOtrainers to speculate as to what kind of content will be offered up to celebrate both the game and the season.
For 2016’s holiday event, Niantic decided to make the season special by givingPokemon GOtrainers a brief window to nab a limited edition Santa Pikachu. Taking this into consideration, it’s quite possible that this year’s event will provide a similar treat featuring the Electric type, or perhaps the game will give another fan favorite like Eevee the holiday treatment instead.
Not to mention, the developer also usedlast year’s holiday eventto increase the chance of hatching Togepi and other Johto baby Pokemon. Plus, each of the original Kanto starters and their evolutions were encountered a lot more often, so perhaps the likes of Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle will pop up more frequently yet again inPokemon GO’s next holiday event.
Of course, there’s really no way of knowing exactly what Niantic has planned forPokemon GO’s holiday event for 2017 until the developer tips its hand and openly reveals the cards it’s holding. That said, though, witha new dynamic weather systembeing implemented soon, maybe Niantic will tie in the meteorology-related feature with this year’s festivities to create rarer and more unique rewards for those trying to catch ‘em all during snowy, wintry climes.
Pokemon GOis available now for Android and iOS.
