Niantic Labs has been surveying its Pokémon GO players, trying to find out which of the past Pokémon GO events have they liked the most.
Niantic has discovered that the Holiday Event Part II and the Thanksgiving events have been the most popular with gamers. Of the two, the latter had been more sensational as the shape-shifting Pokémon, Ditto was launched.
Each event was accompanied by some major announcements and updates to the game, as the Halloween update introduced the Buddy system, the Christmas event integrated the Pokémon Gen 2, by releasing 7 Gen 2 Pokémon, which can be obtained through eggs.
These surveys are a part of Niantic's future update plans to ascertain what finds favor with gamers. While these events were happily embraced by the players, they still have plenty more to look forward to.
Here are some of the major Pokémon GO events which are slated to happen in 2017:
Mew And Mewtwo: The Deadly Duo
Mew and Mewtwo are the mysterious Pokémon 150 and 151. These two Pokémon are the strongest and hardest to catch. There will be a huge cheer in the gaming community if Niantic does release these two Pokémon. Mewtwo can be captured and stored for gym battles. This will effectively render your gym unbeatable, as Mewtwo is the toughest Pokémon to beat.
Mewtwo may have a grand launch, with Niantic organizing a "landmark spawn." Players could be notified about it through their smartphones or bracelets and may need to assemble at a common point. This suggests that several players could gather and work together to capture Mewtwo.
Mew could have a mellower introduction into the game.
Region Unlocking
Nintendo announced that the region locking feature had been removed for its Nintendo Switch console. The next logical move would be to remove that feature in Pokémon Go as well.
This means that the region-restricted Pokémon would be allowed to spawn anywhere in the world. For example, Farfetch'd is only found in Asia right now and Tauros in North America. Removing the region locking feature would allow these two Pokémon, along with other restricted Pokémon like Kangaskhan and Mr. Mime to spawn anywhere in the world. This will increase the diversity of Pokémon in an area to a great extent.
Shiny Pokémon
Shiny Pokémon will be an exciting addition to Pokémon GO. It will be a pretty inexpensive addition as the only tweak would be to reskin and provide all the monsters with a glossy coat. A short animatronics intro video may also be considered. These are some things which Pokémon GO players are craving for and Niantic would do well to add them soon.
The Legendary Ones
The three types of Legendary bird Pokémon, namely Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos, are yet to be launched in the game. The most popular rumor is that they may be attached to the three different Pokémon GO teams. This is because the three Pokémon are the logos for the three teams.
Other possibilities include a long quest that a player will have to finish to catch the birds. This may include catching 30 fire type Pokémon, find and hatch a 30km egg, fight the insanely powerful birds and then capture them.
While this may sound farfetched, it is high time Niantic starts working on launching these three mighty birds into the Pokémon GO universe.
Gen 2: The Next Generation
Not much has been revealed about the Gen 2 Pokémon since 7 of them released during the Christmas event. This is a highly anticipated event as launching 100 new Pokémon all at once would be a sensational thing to do.
Niantic will surely earn brownie points with players if it decides to launch Gen 2. This would release a whole new world of Pokémon and also make for a more engaging experience. The Gen 2 legendary Pokémon would then need their own events and probably set the stage for Gen 3 to be released eventually.
These are the major events to look forward to in the coming months and here's hoping that Niantic will fulfil these wishes pretty soon, allowing allow gamers to play with their favorite little monsters in a whole new and exciting manner.
Photo: Nabeel H | Flickr
