Sunday’s ‘Pokemon Presents’ broadcast saw plenty of major announcements as fans of thePokemonfranchise celebrated the long-running monster-catching series' twenty-sixth anniversary. Alongside reveals like the highly-anticipated Daybreak update coming toPokemon Legends: Arceuslater today and the official announcement ofPokemon’s ninth generation games inPokemon Scarlet and Violet.Pokemon GOalso joined in the festivities, with the popular mobile game announcing the newest set ofPokemoncoming to the game.
SincePokemon GO’s release in 2016, Niantic and The Pokemon Company have steadily added new creatures to the game spanning the franchise’s first sixth generations with the mobile game, even adding several fromPokemon’s eighth generation to coincide withPokemon Sword and Shield’s release in 2019. The game has also added plenty of regional variations for many of the game’s most popular Pokemon with popular variants like Alolan Exeggcutor and Hisuian forms from the recentPokemon Legends: Arceus. Now, Niantic has officially announced the addition ofPokemon Sun and Moon’s Alolan Pokemon toPokemon GO.
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Niantic officially announced during the Pokemon Day celebratory ‘Pokemon Presents’ broadcast thatAlolan Pokemon would soon be added toPokemon GO, teasing the starter evolution Decidueye during an animated trailer. While no official confirmation was given as to which Pokemon would be featured in the upcoming update, fans of the franchise’s Alola region won’t have to wait long to see some of their favorite Pokemon added toPokemon GO.The announcement confirmed the Alola update will be coming toPokemon GOon March 1st.
Alongside the addition of Alolan Pokemon toPokemon GOearly this week, The Pokemon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya also confirmed that Alolan Exeggcutor will be appearing more frequently for players in the days leading up to the Alola update. The announcement of the Alola region marks the seventh of Pokemon’s eight major regions to be featured withinPokemon GOwith previous datamines and leakssuggesting that the update will feature the full roster and potentially even the Legendaries and Ultra Beasts.
With the packed slate of announcements during Sunday’s ‘Pokemon Presents’ broadcast, 2022 has the makings of a peak year for thePokemonfranchise.The newest main-series game,Pokemon Legends: Arceus, released to massive critical and commercial acclaim topping sales charts last month while the confirmation ofPokemon Scarlet and Violetset release dates for the dawn ofPokemon’s ninth generation of games for later this year. Between the significant success ofPokemon’s recent entries and the confirmation of the future ofPokemoncoming very soon, the franchise will look to build on its recent accomplishments whenPokemon Scarletand Violetrelease later this year.
Pokemon GOis available now for mobile devices. The Alola update will launch March 1st.
