Pokémon GO

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.

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.

Fletchling has been announced to be the featured Pokémon for the March 2021 Pokémon GO Community Day event. This Community Day event will be held on 6 March from 11am to 5pm in all time zones. During the time period of the event Fletchling will be appearing more frequently in the wild and will be more likely to be encountered as a Shiny Pokémon. Fletchinder that evolve into Talonflame from 11am to 7pm in all time zones on 6 March will know the Community Day exclusive move Incinerate.

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 Pokémon GO team have announced two upcoming events for Pokémon GO for mid-January and early February. Hoenn will feature as part of the Countdown to Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto, while Roselia will be the featured Pokémon for February's Community Day.

The creators of hacked versions of Pokémon GO and other Niantic mobile titles have agreed to a $USD 5 million settlement.

Niantic CEO John Hanke and Mayhem CEO Ivan Zhou anounced in separate blog posts today the acquisition of the small San Francisco based social gaming startup by Niantic. The specific terms of the acquisition, including whatever fee may have been paid by Niantic, have not been disclosed by either chief executive. Mayhem is best known for mayhem.gg, a social platform launched in 2019 which provides tools to gaming communities for creating their own organized leagues, ladders, and tournaments.

Niantic are giving Pokémon GO players worldwide the opportunity to have their trainer avatars appear as in-game characters for other players as part of Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto

Pokémon Go has announced that on Monday May 30th The Game will bring new features that will bring the game beyond its current state. This will bring a new Level Cap of Level 50, In Game seasons, Kalos Pokémon,, and a new event called 12 days of friendship. 12 Days of Friendship Event Level 40 Trainers, get ready for a whole new challenge! Trainers with experience Past level 40 will benefit from new levels and the following bonuses Level 41: Submit your catching skills to a test of endurance! You’ll be expected to catch a high number of Pokémon in a single day, along with other tasks, in order to reach level 41. Level 42: From evolving Eevee into each of its available Evolutions, to using certain Evolution items on specific Pokémon, reaching level 42 will test your knowledge of Pokémon Evolutions. Level 43: Show us your mastery of Gym battles and Raid Battles! You’ll also need to have earned a certain number of pPlatinum medals before you can advance to level 43. You might find...