Archaic

My name is Giovanni, and I am the leader of Team Rainbow Rocket – a multidimensional collaboration of the universe’s greatest criminal minds! Our purpose these past 25 years has been the subjugation of Pokémon for our personal wealth and power, and to this end we have seized control of the site known to this reality as Bulbagarden. The contributions of thousands of Pokémon fans on Bulbapedia, Bulbanews and the Bulbagarden Forums are now at our fingertips. With this change in leadership, you may notice a range of new… promotional activities across Bulbagarden. However, the site will be returned undamaged and the staff unharmed, so long as our demands are met

Over the past few months, it's been depressing just how frequently we've covered stories of Pokémon Card heists. What sets apart this week's case, from Ikebukuro in Tokyo's Toshima ward, is the extreme lengths to which the alledged criminal went to get their hands on these valuable cardboard rectangles. Nakanishi Kensuke, a resident of Toshima ward, was arrested on Monday March 29th after investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police managed to identify him from security camera footage that happened to catch him in the act of walking down the side of a building.

Earlier this month, John Walker wrote an article for Kotaku entitled “Pokemon Go's Eggs Aren't Lootboxes, They're Fun Presents”. In this article, John in effect tried to convince readers that something that walks like a Psyduck, quacks like a Psyduck, and holds its head in pain like a Psyduck, is in fact not a Psyduck. It didn’t take long until for the article to attract appropriate derision for its arguments, including from gaming luminaries like Jim Sterling. But what really concerns me is that John’s arguments also attracted a large defence force of people who, quite frankly, seemed to take personal offense at the idea that a mechanic they used in a game they enjoyed could possibly be a loot box. So with that in mind, I think it’s time we all had a bit of a chat about Pokémon GO’s various forms of loot boxes, why John’s claim that they're not loot boxes is just flat out wrong, and why these being loot boxes is something we shouldn’t be in denial over.

glik discusses the recent Pokemon Day announcements and reveals with TheCapsFan, Fitzy, WyndonCalling, and Rhodehawk.

If you've been wanting to invite your friends to Pokémon GO but have lacked the motivation, you're about to be in luck. Pokémon GO will soon be giving players an incentive to lure friends on-board in the form of a referral program and reward scheme.

For the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated the Tohoku region prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, Niantic has this week launched a new program in a similar vein to the Local Business Recovery Initiative the company launched last October to assist businesses and communities who had been hit hard by COVID.

Tech demos don't always make it to the open market, but they're often a good indicator of where we're heading. Pokémon GO developer Niantic recently partnered with Microsoft to build a proof-of-concept version of Pokémon GO, showing us one possible future for their mobile game. This version runs on Microsoft's HoloLens 2 headset and coincides with the release of their new Mesh platform, giving us a glimpse of the technology outside the office environment it was initially designed for.

Pokémon GO recently suffered from a technical glitch resulting in some Trainers gaining to access ticket-gated content for free during the Kanto event. While this was obviously great for those who were able to take advantage of it, this understandably devalued the tickets others bought and paid for. To make up for this, Pokémon GO is adding a bonus event to the Kanto tour for all ticket holders.

In one of the most anticipated announcements in the history of the Pokémon franchise, three new games set in the Sinnoh region have just been announced during the Pokémon Presents video presentation for Pokémon Day 2021.

In the latest of what seems like an never ending stream of clothing brands announcing special Pokémon collaborations, UK retailer Zavvi has revealed details on its line of limited edition items celebrating Pokémon's 25th Anniversary. The collection, which centers around the iconic Generation 1 Pokémon Pikachu, is scheduled to go on sale on the Zavvi website on Pokémon Day, February 27th, in a staggered rollout. While Zavvi is a UK based retailer, their website does offer international shipping, and there appear to be no limits on Pokéfans outside of the UK scoring themselves any of the items in the limited collection, or any of the other Pokémon clothing and merchendise that the company sells.

Pokémon Day 2021 is upon us, marking the 25th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Green in Japan. The day will kick off with a special Pokémon Presents presentation at midnight Japan time, with a promised 20-minute-long stream of Pokémon news. Ahead of this special presentation though, we need to have a chat. A chat about how we as a fandom respond to news and announcements, particularly when those announcements weren’t quite what we were hoping for. Because quite frankly, if we’re going to see the same kind of behaviour with the Pokémon Day announcements this year as we’ve seen with other unpopular announcements like Sword & Shield not including the entire National Dex, or Pokémon UNITE, then we’ll only have proven we don’t deserve to have good things.

Cheating, in one form or another, has been been endemic in Pokémon GO ever since the global phenomenon first hit the streets in 2016. Many players may have seen initial efforts at things like location spoofing as simple time saves and effectively non-issues, or even outright required for play for some players with disibilities or living in remote locations with few PokéStops. From these relatively innocent beginning however, we've seen growing examples of more flagrant, outright cheating spurred by desires for an unfair advantage over other players, such as save game editing and bots, spurred several waves of bans from Niantic.

In perhaps the least surprising Pokémon Day news yet, a special Pokémon Presents video presentation has been announced to kick off Pokémon Day celebrations. The presentation will air from midnight Japan time on Pokémon Day, February 27th, and feature roughly 20 minutes of Pokémon news.

TheCapsFan leads a lively discussion on predictions for the upcoming 25th anniversary of Pokémon. Join him, along with Archaic, Rhodehawk, WyndonCalling, celadonk, and Blazing Larvesta, as they guess about impending news.

Australian clothing brand BlackMilk has announced the company will be releasing a new range of Pokémon clothing, with the line to go on sale this March 2nd.

The Pokémon Company International has recruited a new Director of Digital Consumer Engagement, Narbeh Minasians. Narbeh joins TPCI after more than a decade at Nickelodeon Animation, where he has spent the last four and a half year working as the Director of Nickelodeon's online social content and marketing. Narbeh is also a Director of The BRIC Foundation, an organisation which works to increase representation of women and people of underrepresented groups in the Entertainment, Gaming, Media, and Tech industries.

Opposuits, a novelty suit company based in The Netherlands, unveiled earlier this week its upcoming licensed collaboration with The Pokémon Company. The suit features first generation starter Pokémon Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander, alongside franchise mascot Pikachu, and includes a jacket, pants, and matching tie.

In a statement provided to multiple media organisations, McDonalds responded to the ongoing shortages of Pokémon 25th Anniversary Happy Meal Toys and Cards, and confirmed they are working with supply chain partners to restock these items. Their official statement stopped short however of directly acknowledging the ongoing flagrant scalping of these product on online auction sites such as eBay.

In a blog posted this week, Niantic CEO John Hanke has announced the launch of the Black Developers Initiative (BDI), as an extension of their existing Beyond Reality Initiative. The Black Developers Initiative will provide special funding for new projects from Black game development teams for the Niantic platform. Teams who are approved for BDI will receive five months of funding to develop a real-world augmented reality game, as well as direct mentorship and development support from the Niantic team themselves.

The real test for anyone wanting to catch these Pokémon cards and toys won't just be how far and wide you're willing to travel across the land. In a sad addition to the list of why we can't have nice things, the rollout of these Happy Meals has been marred by reports of scalpers and overzealous adult collectors snapping up all available stock.