Pokemon Go Events Are Coming Soon

Earlier this month, ComicBook.com theorized that Niantic Labs would release Legendary Pokemon around official events, similar to the official events that the company regularly holds for their other augmented reality game, Ingress. We theorized that, like in the game's first trailer, players would have to work together to defeat and catch particularly strong Pokemon.

In an interview with Forbes Magazine, Niantic CEO John Hanke confirmed that the company would be releasing new Pokemon at official Pokemon Go events. "You will see new Pokémon come into the game around special events at certain times in certain parts of the world," Hanke told the magazine. "You'll see us do some things around events."

The news isn't exactly a surprise, especially to Pokemon Go players that were familiar with Ingress, but it does confirm that Niantic will be throwing events around the world, similar to Nintendo's occasional Pokemon distributions. Hanke also noted that the events would be different from traditional Pokemon Go gameplay, stating that there are some "things" they do to make the game more interesting.

Unlike Ingress, Hanke was unsure if the company would organize the events themselves or support some of the thousands of Pokemon Go events organized by fans around the world. "We initially thought that we would organize events ourselves like we did for Ingress. We'll see if we do or not. There are a lot of self-organizing events that are happening and maybe we just support those." That could mean Niantic may tap into the hundreds of official "Pokemon Professors" who already organize and officiate official Pokemon video game and trading card events around the world.

Hanke stopped short of confirming that they'd release Legendary Pokemon at these events, but it's the most likely guess. Hanke also mentioned at SDCC about potentially finding "interesting ways" to add Pokemon from later Generation games, so it's possible these events could unlock Pokemon from other regions as well.