‘Pokemon GO’: Generation 2 Hits And Misses, Plus What Is Still To Come

Pokemon GO Generation 2 characters are starting to roll out. While any new Pokemon available seems to give the app a boost in downloads, it has been suggested by some that Niantic Labs completely missed the boat on the latest update. The critics may not be too far off from the truth.

Forbes has been especially critical of the latest update. They have gone as far as to say that Niantic “blew it.” They state that the announcement of Pokemon GO Generation 2 was misleading in the fact that fans will only get a few new Pokemon and none that can be caught in the wild.

Last week, the Pokemon GO publisher made waves with various bits of news. Both U.S. Sprint stores, as well as Starbucks, made announcements that their stores would now serve as PokeStops. This is a first among U.S. retailers. It was also announced that plans for a much larger announcement would be taking place on Monday of this week.

While some expected a major push, Niantic opted to just make Baby Pokemon available to the public. According to Pokemon Wiki site Bulbapedia, Baby Pokémon are the lowest form of a Pokémon evolution.

“Baby Pokémon are Pokémon at the lowest stage of Pokémon Evolution that cannot themselves breed. The concept was introduced in Generation II, along with breeding. Specifically, baby Pokémon can be classified by the following criteria:”

“Must be obtainable by breeding.”

“Must be the lowest form in a family chain and must be able to evolve at least once.”

“Must belong to the Undiscovered Egg Group.”

Staying true to the introduction of Baby Pokemon, Niantic has opted to release these Baby Pokemon through the egg hatching system. Players can obtain eggs as well as other loot from PokeStops. The egg is then placed in an incubator, and the player then walks a certain distance to hatch the egg.

While it is hard to argue the way of distribution of Baby Pokemon, Forbes felt that a larger update would have given Pokemon GO a boost they think it desperately needs.

“Millions around the world had a great time with the thing in the first couple weeks, only to let it lapse once they caught enough Pokémon or realized there really wasn’t much more to do beside walk around somewhat aimlessly. The roadmap, however, was right there in plain sight. Niantic got to generate big headlines by adding in new monsters and bring lapsed players back into the fold.”

The article goes on to assume that fans can expect this “piecemeal” strategy to continue throughout Generation 2.

It is hard to argue that dropping all 100 Pokemon into GO would not have had an initial positive effect on the app. However, Niantic needed to consider the timing of the update. A great number of players are currently beginning the winter months. The casual gamer may not feel the necessity to walk around in sometimes subfreezing temperatures to catch Pokémon.

There is also a very real possibility that fans could see a Christmas Event announced. In Monday’s blog post, Niantic leaked that certain festive Pikachu can be caught between now and December 29. Considering the popularity of the Halloween Event this year, many feel that something similar should be expected for Christmas.

Regardless of whether you feel the Pokemon GO Generation 2 rollout should have been done different, it is obvious that Niantic and the Pokemon company have plans to continue to update what SurveyMonkey called the most popular mobile game in U.S. history. Plus, with more than $750 million in gross revenue at this point, Niantic must be doing something right!

[Featured Image by Kin Cheung/AP Images]