Tag Archive

Pokemon GO’s Massive Raid / Gym Update Now Live On iOS


Posted on June 21, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Niantic and Nintendo rolled out the recently announced Gym / Raid update for Pokemon GO on iOS and Android this afternoon. Trainers haven’t been able to go to their local Gyms for a few days now, simply receiving a message that “Gyms are currently under construction” – and as of the writing of this post, this is still true in North America. In their official announcement, which you can check out here, Niantic called this update to Pokemon Go “the biggest update” the game has received yet.

Raids

Remember that stunning moment in one of the Pokemon Go reveal trailers where dozens upon dozens of trainers got together in Times Square to battle Mewtwo? That dream is taking one step closer to reality with the addition to Raids in Go. Basically, a large egg will spawn above select Gyms with a timer. Trainers have until the timer reaches zero to assemble and prepare to work together to take down the Raid Boss. Each boss will be a surprise, and as of right now we don’t know if Raid Bosses will include legendaries but it is certainly possible.

Participating in the Raid events does come at a cost, either by collecting the one free “raid pass” that you are entitled too from a participating Gym or by purchasing a Premium Raid Pass in the Coin Shop.

Here is how Niantic explained the differences between the two passes:

“Before you can battle the Raid Boss, you’ll need a Raid Pass. You can get one free Raid Pass per day by visiting a Gym, but you can only hold one at a time. You can also get Premium Raid Passes from the in-game shop. “

New Items

Defeating a Raid Boss can reward a number of new items to the participating trainers including:

  • Rare Candy – Can be used to generate a single Pokemon candy of any kind.
  • Golden Razz Berry – Greatly enhances the capture chance of a wild Pokemon.
  • TMs (Technical Machines) – Used to teach a Pokemon a new fast or charged attack for use in Gyms.

Gym Enhancements and Badges

Gyms are receiving a massive overhaul in the latest version of Pokemon GO. No longer will Gyms be stacked with six unbeatable 3000CP Dragonites or Blisseys that you have no hope of defeating. Thanks to a new motivation system there is also a higher chance individual trainers will be able to contribute a Pokemon to their local gyms, rather than waiting on the sidelines. Special items, badges, and other incentives will also give trailers a reason for stopping by a Gym – rather than letting it literally pass them by.

Here is a quick rundown with how Gyms are changing once construction is finished:

  • Pokemon in Gyms is no longer tied to their Combat Power. Instead, each Gym has six slots available to the controlling team.
  • Pokemon taking up the six slots will lose “motivation” over time or when defeated. As their motivation drops their Challenge Points will also decrease, making them easier to defeat.
  • Once a slotted monster is defeated that slot becomes open again for new trainers to park their favorite little mon.
  • Gyms can now be spun like PokeStops to reward trainers for visiting them.
  • Badges have been added that will give players a visual memento for the contributions they’ve made to Gyms during their journey.

So, how do you feel about the latest Pokemon Go update? It may not be the huge fad it was one year ago but millions of trainers still play the game – myself included. Badges and free items could be an interesting incentive to visit Gyms and I’m glad that Niantic has provided a way for everyone to participate in raids. I haven’t owned a Gym in mooooonths, since other trainers starting stacking them with so many Blisseys.

Perhaps this will spark huge crowds like in the video above? What do you think? Leave your comments below!


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The Pokémon GO Eggstravaganza runs thru April 20th


Posted on April 15, 2017 by Jason Nason

Niantic and The Pokémon Company have detailed their spring promotion for mobile title Pokémon GO – the Pokémon GO Eggstravaganza.

From 4:00 PM EDT on April 13th thru 4:00 PM EDT on April 20th, 2017, a greater variety of Pokémon can now be found in 2 km Eggs. Additionally you’ll also earn more Candy for every Egg hatched.

Throughout this Eggstravaganza, you’ll also level up even faster with double XP! Combine this bonus with a Lucky Egg, and you’ll earn four times the XP you normally would. Lucky Eggs will be also be 50% off in the in-game shop.

Now that the weather has started to turn around, are you getting out there more with Pokémon GO?


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Pokémon GO launching global water festival In-Game Event


Posted on March 22, 2017 by Jason Nason

Niantic and The Pokémon Company International today revealed Pokémon GO’s next in-game celebration, the Pokémon GO Water Festival.

From today at 4:00 PM EST until March 29th at 4:00 PM EST, trainers will be more likely to encounter Water-type Pokémon like Magikarp, Squirtle, Totodile and their evolutions around the world. Trainers will also have a greater chance of encountering Water-type Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region, which recently began appearing in the game, when exploring areas where Water-type Pokémon more commonly appear.

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Over 80 more Pokémon and new features coming this week to Pokémon GO


Posted on February 15, 2017 by Jason Nason

Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, and many more Pokémon are nearly here in Pokémon GO! Starting later this week, more than 80 Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region in the Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games will be available in Pokémon GO.

Pokémon with gender-specific variations, will also start rolling out in Pokémon GO.

New Evolutions: Some Pokémon originally discovered in the Kanto region will soon be able to evolve—into Pokémon that inhabit the Johto region. New Evolution items will also be available at PokéStops, which you’ll need to evolve some Pokémon.

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Pokemon Go Players Have Walked Billions of Kilometers


Posted on December 20, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Pokemon GO is one of the few unique mainstream games that rewards players for going out into the real world and exploring. Whether they’re walking down the block or across their entire city to hatch eggs, Pokemon Trainers the world over have racked up quite the tally – over 9 billion KM have been tallied by trainers the Pokemon Company since its July launch.

If you need a comparison to help you comprehend just how massive 9 billion KM is, here is what the Pokemon GO blog said:

“We are pleased to share that—as of December 7—the Pokémon GO community has collectively walked more than 8.7 billion kilometers. That’s more than 200,000 trips around Earth! Fun fact: A commercial jetliner would take more than 1,000 years to cover the same distance. While covering this distance, Trainers also caught more than 88 billion Pokémon along the way. That’s roughly 533 million Pokémon a day!”

Even with all of this walking, Pokemon GO Players haven’t crossed the entire solar system yet – who knows if Nintendo will make an interstellar announcement once players cross the 287 billion KM mark (the diameter of our solar system).

Alongside their blog post Niantic also included the following animated info-graphic:


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New Pokémon and Holiday Pikachu added to Pokémon GO


Posted on December 12, 2016 by Jason Nason

Niantic and Nintendo spread a little bit of holiday cheer today with the announcment of some new Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO.

Togepi and Pichu will start hatching from Eggs. Starting today, trainers will have the opportunity to hatch these and several other Pokémon that were originally discovered in the Johto Region in Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games.

Niantic also shared that these are the first of more Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO over the next few months.

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More Pokémon coming soon to Pokémon GO


Posted on December 7, 2016 by Jason Nason

There are about to be more catchable Pokémon in Niantic and Nintendo’s mobile game Pokémon GO soon.

The official Pokémon Twitter channel sent out a brief tweet today announcing that “More Pokémon are coming to Pokémon GO!” The tweet went on to tease the date of December 12th for more information.

There is some speculation of what the new Pokémon will be, with the assumption that it will be the second generation Pokémon coming to the game. While that is the most likely assumption, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the new Pokémon from Nintendo’s newest 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon might not be in the mix.

It would certainly be a miss not to use this release to cross promote between the two Pokémon games.

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New Pokémon GO nearby feature rolled out to rest of North America


Posted on November 30, 2016 by Jason Nason

Niantic announced today that they have rolled out their revamped nearby Pokémon feature for Pokémon GO to the rest of the continental United States and large parts of Europe today. The roll out includes the rest of Canada as well.

The new nearby Pokémon feature now includes the nearest PokéStop to the Pokémon, and zooms in to show more detail when tapped. You can also tap on the tracks on this screen and the game shifts to an overhead map briefly to show you approximately where you can find the Pokémon. The map then reverts to the normal view, however a marker is now visible on the map.

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Pokémon GO updates, Ditto, and local realtime tracker


Posted on November 27, 2016 by Jason Nason

I’ll be honest. After the initial craze for Pokémon GO hit I somewhat fell off the bandwagon. I wasn’t one of those people who spent hours and days walking around seeking the elusive creatures, sucking up tons and tons of data. I’ll admit, after I let a friend without mobile data tether off of my data and I ended up going way over my monthly data, I really scaled back on my usage.

Heck, I’m only level 14.

But I have been keeping tabs on the game and am not one of those who uninstalled the game and wrote it off. I’m sure there’s much more to come.

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Pokémon GO has been updated with the addition of daily bonuses


Posted on November 6, 2016 by Jason Nason

Pokémon GO is in the process of being updated for Android and iOS devices. The update includes daily bonuses.

Playing the game you’ll earn bonuses for the first Pokémon catch and PokéStop visit each day. You’ll receive a larger bonus when you do this seven days in a row. Catching a Pokémon every day will earn 500 XP and 600 Stardust. Catching a Pokémon every day for 7 days straight will earn a larger bonus of 2,000 XP and 2,400 Stardust.

Visiting a PokéStop and spinning the Photo Disc every day will earn you 500 XP and a number of additional items, while visiting a PokéStop every day for 7 days straight will earn the larger bonus of 2,000 XP and a greater number of additional items.

The eligibility of the bonuses rolls over at 12:00 AM local time.

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New Pokémon Go Content Released


Posted on October 13, 2016 by Joshua Rust

While the craze for Pokémon Go has died down a little bit. With that said it’s still bringing in around $2 million a day. That’s incredible. To keep players entranced in the Poke-madness, Niantic have been periodically releasing updates to the game. They have started rolling out another one today as version 0.41.2 for Android and 1.11.2 for iOS are available now for you Pokémon trainers.

In this patch, the following improvements and content has been added:

  • Catch Bonus: Trainers can earn a catch bonus for a Pokémon type as they catch more of a specific type.
  • Updated Gym Training: Trainers can now bring six Pokémon to battle at friendly Gyms. The CP of the Pokémon you are battling may be temporarily adjusted lower for your training session.
  • Egg & Incubator Screens: These will periodically update the distance walked without the Trainer needing to close and reopen the screen.
  • Fixed several audio issues.
  • Decreased the evolution animation time.
  • Minor fixes

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Are any of these features enough to get you back into the game? What new features would you like to see implemented in future updates? Personally, I’d like to see a friends list implemented into the game, maybe alerting you when they are nearby so you could team up to catch more Pokémon.


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Pokemon Go Exceeds 500,000,000 Worldwide Downloads


Posted on September 8, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Nintendo & Niantic have jointly announced that Pokemon GO has exceeded five hundred million downloads worldwide across the Android & iOS platforms since the game’s worldwide earlier this summer.

Describing the game this is what the CEO of the Pokemon Company had to say:

“The team at Niantic developed a unique experience that merges their expertise in cutting-edge location-based technologies with the beloved characters and classic gameplay of Pokémon. This ideal match of the right brand and the right technology has resonated with hundreds of millions of existing and new fans around the world.”

In the game players take on the role of Pokemon Trainers, assembling their own dream team of Pocket Monsters and take them into the real world. Blending elements of reality through augmented reality Pokemon GO uses the player’s rear facing cameras to insert the monsters into the real world. GPS is used to encourage trainers to venture out into their city or town to discover what wild monsters, poke stops and gyms await them.

apple-iphone-watch-20160907-4023-0

Pokemon Go for Apple Watch as captured by The Verge

500 million downloads isn’t the only major milestone that Pokemon GO  has passed – the game also set the record for the most download during its initial release in the United States.  Pokemon GO also has the distinction of sitting at the top of the top grossing chart on the Canadian App Store as well.

Pokemom GO will also come to the Apple Watch later this year with the public release of WatchOS 3. The companion Watch App will let trainers know when a wild Pokemon has appeared, if they are near a PokeStop and it will also allow players to hatch eggs while walking.,


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Pokémon GO updated again with minor bug fixes


Posted on August 8, 2016 by Jason Nason

Niantic announced today that mobile game sensation Pokémon GO has been updated to version 0.33.0 for Android and 1.3.0 for iOS devices.

Below are some release notes and comments from the development team.

  • Added a dialog to remind Trainers that they should not play while traveling above a certain speed.
  • Trainers must confirm they are not driving in order to continue playing.
  • Made improvements to the accuracy of a curveball throw
  • Fixed a bug that prevented ”Nice,” ”Great,” and “Excellent” Poké Ball throws from awarding the appropriate XP bonuses.
  • Fixed achievements showing incorrect Medal icons.
  • Enabled the ability for Trainers to change their nickname one time. Please choose your new nickname wisely.
  • Resolved issues with the battery saver mode on iOS and re-enabled the feature.
  • Added visuals of Team Leaders Candela, Blanche, and Spark.
  • Currently testing a variation of the “Nearby Pokémon” feature with a subset of users. During this period you may see some variation in the nearby Pokémon UI.
  • Minor text fixes

I haven’t taken the app out for a GO since the update, but just a quick look inside the app after the update doesn’t show a lot of cosmetic difference, with the notable exception that the “nearby Pokémon” screen now shows a bit of grass behind the character.

We’ll let you know more as we experience the update.


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Response: I4U Embraces Sexism Blaming PR Issues on Marketing Manager’s Maternity Leave


Posted on August 2, 2016 by Renee Gittins

This morning I came across an article on I4U’s site titled “The Sweet Reason of Niantic’s Lack of Communication About Pokemon GO Troubles”. Intrigued, I opened the article and read it. If I had been drinking coffee, I would have spit it out all over my desk.

I4U’s Luigi Lugmayr placed Niantic’s Product Marketing Manager, Yennie Solheim Fuller, at the center of the blame for Niantic’s poor communication with their fanbase.

Why is Niantic basically silent throughout the turmoil of viral growth that cause all kinds of issues?

The person who is responsible for PR and Marketing at Niantic gave birth two days after the launch of Pokemon Go. Yennie Solheim Fuller is on maternity leave.

First of all, I am not sure how Lugmayr decided that Fuller was responsible for the PR of Niantic. While she previously acted as the Marketing & Communications Manager when Niantic was still under Google, she left that position for her role as a Marketing Manager a year ago. Although she still may have been responsible for public relations before her maternity leave, there are no indications anywhere online that is the case.

Secondly, if Fuller gave birth two days after launch, you can bet that Niantic had months of time to plan for her absence. If Fuller had been in a car accident instead, Niantic wouldn’t have had months to prepare, and would she have still have been blamed? Though this is a rather moot point if Fuller was not in charge of public relations at all.

maternity

Lugmayr does state later in the article that “Because nobody at Niantic anticipated the extreme popularity of Pokemon Go, the company has likely not prepared a replacement for Solheim while she is on maternity leave.” Though this statement removes some of the blame from Fuller, it falls painfully short after blaming her maternity leave from marketing as the reason for Niantic’s public relations failure.

Lugmayr also fails to recognize that Niantic has been well known for its slow response times and lack of communication with its community. The “silence” his article focuses on as a huge issue has been Niantic’s normal behavior ever since they launched Ingress in 2013.

Articles like this are extremely detrimental to the game industry and the women who are part of it. It is no secret that the game industry has problems with sexism and low amounts of female employees, only 22% according to IGDA’s 2015 survey. The women who are part of the industry are often victims of harassment, are paid less than men, and rarely receive maternity leave at all.

Calling Fuller’s maternity leave the “sweet reason” that Niantic is being unresponsive will make companies shy away from hiring women and providing maternity leave, and discourage other women from pursuing careers in games knowing that they may be unfairly incriminated for a failure of their company.

This shameful article not only places unwarranted fault on Fuller, but it features her image as the banner photo along with the jeering “sweet reason” in the title, effectively painting a target on her. Fuller’s Twitter is full of harassment and blame.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/YennieSolheim”>@YennieSolheim</a> You are doing a horrible PR &amp; Marketing. Quit NOW!</p>&mdash; Réudrigo (@Aristeaux) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Aristeaux/status/759936407284527105″>August 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/YennieSolheim”>@YennieSolheim</a> so the reason that <a href=”https://twitter.com/NianticLabs”>@NianticLabs</a> has been silent since the game released is that ur on maternity leave?</p>&mdash; Venkat Krishnan (@krish_ven) <a href=”https://twitter.com/krish_ven/status/756236892056715265″>July 21, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Women in the game industry need support of the public and press, not to suffer attacks for failures outside of their control, especially while on leave. It is shameful that Lugmayr would make Fuller the scapegoat for Niantic’s habitual lack of communication. With a USA Alexa rank of 31239 and a global Alexa rank of 82870, one would hope that I4U would have better quality journalism than is contained in Lugmayr’s article.


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