Pokemon GO reportedly making over $1 million per day

December 5, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

According to Recode news, Pokemon GO has generated over $1 million per day. This is despite the fact that Pokemon GO has seen a steady decline in users since its initial launch back in July.

And during Pokemon GO's Halloween event, in which spooky Pokemon appeared everywhere, Pokemon GO brought in around $3 million per day.

One of the many spooky Pokemon that appeared during the Halloween event

It should be noted that Pokemon GO does not host ads in the game like other mobile games do. Instead, Pokemon GO makes money off of micro transactions, which are small and quick purchases that can be made in game.

Various items you can buy in the Poke Store

In Pokemon GO, players can spend real money to buy coins. These coins can be used to buy items that help players find and catch Pokemon. Lures are a special item players can buy that causes Pokemon to appear around the Pokestop a lure is dropped. This has promoted some store owners to buy and drop lures at their stores as a way of drawing in customers.

Niantic also makes money through also sponsored Pokestops, where companies can pay to have a Pokestop created on a particular store. McDonalds has begun experimenting with sponsored Pokestops, paying Niantic to turn several of their Japanese stores in into Pokestops.

A Pokestop in Japan sponsored by McDonalds

More recently, the local governments in the Tohoku region of Japan, the region that was affected by the 2011 tsunami disaster, paid Niantic around $290,000 to host a week long Pokemon event. During the event, a rare Pokemon called Lapras would spawn in the region. This was done in hopes of increasing tourism to the region, which was badly affected by the tsunami.

During the event, dozens of Lapras Pokemons spawned in the Tohoku region as a way of increasing tourism 

Niantic also dropped lures all around the Tohoku region in order to attract players to the region. The event was widely popular, with thousands flying to Tohoku in order to catch these rare Pokemon.

Niantic implements new way of calculating Combat Power

December 5, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

Niantic announced on social media that it have now changed how Combat Power in Pokemon Go is calculated. Combat Power (CP) indicates how strong a Pokemon is. The higher the number, the stronger it is. CP consists of several factors, but the two main factors are overall attack and overall defense.

In the past, Niantic used a certain formula that factored in a Pokemon's defense, attack, and health. Unfortunately, the way Niantic's formula worked caused a number of balancing issues, with a few select Pokemon being overwhelmingly more powerful than the rest of the available Pokemon.

People often complained about the state of this game's balance over social media, calling on Niantic to weaken the current top tier Pokemon in Pokemon GO.

In this latest change, Niantic has not changed the formula; instead, they had changed the values that get plugged into the formula. This has lead to numerous Pokemon that were previously weak becoming much stronger. This change has been received overwhelmingly positively, with people glad to see Niantic finally balancing the game.

I am happy that Niantic is finally beginning to fix some of the more critical issues that are currently hampering this game. For a very long time, the way CP was calculated made for very stale gameplay, with very few of Pokemon being valuable. I am now more inclined to catch Pokemon I previously believed to be too weak to do anything meaningful.

Release date for Pokemon generation 2 possibly leaked

December 4, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

A Starbucks employee has leaked that Pokemon Generation 2 will be released on December 7th. The leak was from an email the employee received about n upcoming promotion between Pokemon GO and Starbucks. People instantly took to social media in excitement and to discuss the leak, which is very sparse in detail.

The actual Pokemon game that Pokemon GO is modeled off of releases new Pokemon by generation. Each new game is a new generation. So far, Pokemon GO has released Generation 1, which includes 145 Pokemon.

A short time ago, Niantic added new data into Pokemon GO that included the necessary  data to launch Generation 2. This has led many to believe that Generation 2's release is imminent. This is in line with Niantic's initial promise back in the summer to release Generation 2 before the year was over.

It should be noted that the leak does misspell the word Pokemon, writing instead "Pokeman." Members of the Pokemon Go community on Reddit have done their best to confirm the veracity of this the email and believe that it is real.

If Generation 2 does get released on December 7th, there will most likely be a huge resurgence in the number of people playing Pokemon GO. Ever since the game's release, there has been a steady drop off in the number of people playing Pokemon Go, with a lack of new content being a huge factor.

Releasing Generation 2 would give players hundreds of new Pokemon to go out and find, and would revitalize the Pokemon GO player base. 

Niantic changes Pokemon spawn points

December 4, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

For the eighth time since the game launched back in July, Niantic has changed which Pokemon appear from Pokemon Nests. Pokemon Nests are a special area where the same Pokemon consistently pops up in clusters.

Nests are a big part of Pokemon GO; players know that specific Pokemon will always spawn there, no matter when they go. Thus, Nests allow players to catch their favorite Pokemon and in large quantities.

This is a Magmar Nest. Magmars are the red and yellow lizard like Pokemon. 

However, Niantic has been periodically changing which Pokemon appear at Nests. There is no set time when Niantic does this, but they have generally changed Nests every two to three weeks.

Niantic has never come and and said why they do this, but it is possible that they do this in order to make the game less predictable and to give people access to different kinds of Pokemon, and not just the same one all the time.

Because of this periodic change, members of the Pokemon GO community have created tools to document annual Nest changes and to announce any Nest change that occur via social media. Member of the Pokemon GO community has also tried to predict what Pokemon will spawn out of a Nest, although there has not been much success.

Niantic often places nests within parks. Central Park, for instance, is one giant Pokemon Nest. If one were to walk there now, one would be 100% guaranteed to find an Electabuzz.

An Electabuzz

Because I live in New York City, I am fortunate to have a lot of parks and subsequently a lot of Nests. These Nests have also gotten me to explore parts of New York I would have never gone to. Just the other day I visited Battery Park in order to visit a Pokemon Nest. Nests are a great way for Niantic to get people to travel around their neighborhood and experience it in a unique way.

Niantic enables new tracker for rest of US and parts of Europe

December 3, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

About four months ago, Niantic unveiled a new tracking system designed to replace their old tracking system. Previously, there was a box in the lower right corner of a player's screen that showed which Pokemon were nearby.

Clicking the white box at the bottom left would bring up a menu.

Once pressed, a menu would pop up that showed which Pokemon were nearby and also how far away they were to the player.

The footsteps show how far away a Pokemon is, ranging from zero to three

Four months ago, Niantic developed a new tracker that showed Pokemon that were near  Poke Stops. As a reminder, Poke Stops are locations in the world that give items. They are usually note worthy spots such as monuments or parks.

This WWI monument has become a Poke Stop.

Niantic gave this tracker to players in San Francisco in order to test out the feature. There were mixed reviews about the tracker, with many people upset about how it worked. However, Niantic continued to roll out the tracker, enabling it in several states in the Midwest. 

Niantic has now enabled the tracker for everyone in the US and in parts of Europe. Many people on social media have come out against the tracker and want these changes reverted.

I personally think this new tracker his good for me, but I can understand why other people do not like it. I have a lot of Poke Stops near my house, so I can no easily track down Pokemon. However, I do recognize that rural/suburban players often have little to no Poke Stops near their houses, making this

this new tracker a downgrade. 

I hope that Niantic takes in the feedback they are getting about this new tracker and allows for both the old tracker and the new tracker to be used.

Pokemon GO reverts change to Gym training

December 3, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

Niantic has just reverted a change they made to Gym prestiging several weeks back. In order to understand the change, it is helpful to understand what Gym prestiging is.

Just as a quick refresher, Gyms in Pokemon Go are locations twhere people can battle their Pokemon. If the Gym belongs to your team, you can put your Pokemon in it.

Someone from the Blue team named Parafawks leaves her Vaporean Pokemon at her Gym

Pokemon in a Gym will defend a Gym until an enemy team finally defeats it. The number of Pokemon you can leave in a Pokemon is directly tied to its level. A level 2 Gym can hold 2 Pokemon, a level 4 Gym can hold 4. Gyms can go up to level 10.

This Gym is level 6

Gym Prestiging is when a player increases the Gym's level, thereby allowing for more Pokemon to sit in a Gym and also increasing its strength. The stronger a Gym is, the harder it is to defeat it.

In order to level up a Gym in Pokemon GO, a player had to fight the Pokemon inside a Gym. Once a player successfully defeated the Pokemon in a friendly Gym, the Gym would increase by a certain number of levels.

Several weeks ago, however, Niantic decided to lower the amount of levels a Gym gained when training it by half. In the past, it might take ten minutes to increase a Gym by two levels. Now it would take twenty minutes.

This outraged a huge number of players, with many taking to social media to voice their frustration. A great number of players felt like they were being punished for playing the game properly. Niantic initially refused to budge; however, after several weeks of continuous complaints the company decided to reverted the change.

Many people are happy that Niantic is finally listening to what its customers have to say, and think this, among several other changes, are reflective of a shift in attitude at Niantic.

I am very happy this change has been implemented. Ever since the change, I completely stopped trying to level up Gyms, believing the effort to be pointless.

But now that Niantic has rescinded their change to Gyms, I will once again try to power up any friendly Gyms I see. This is a step in the right direction for Pokemon GO, as it once again gives players a meaningful objective other than catching Pokemon.

Pokemon GO releases new Pokemon named Ditto

December 2, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

Niantic announced on social media that it has added Ditto to Pokemon GO. Dittos purple, gelatinous creatures that can mimic the appearance of other Pokemon. Dittos will not appear as Dittos in the wild. Instead, they appear as other Pokemon, but most commonly Pidgeys and Rattatas.

When a player catches a Ditto disguised as another Pokemon, a special animation will play. Instead of the typical message saying "Gotcha!" the screen will say "Oh?" followed by the Pokemon transforming into a Ditto.

When you use a Ditto in combat, it will mimic the appearance of the Pokemon it is fighting. It will also copy their attacks and their type. However, Ditto will not copy the other Pokemon's health. This means that your Ditto may have a lot less health than the Pokemon it is fighting.

People have been sharing their Ditto catching stories over social media, with many people praising Niantic for finally adding a new Pokemon for people to catch. Ever since the launch of Pokemon, Niantic has not added any new Pokemon to the game. Ditto comes as a refresher for many people, who have been asking Niantic to release a new Pokemon to catch.