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Niantic celebrates GO anniversary, Solstice Event and Pokémon GO Fest Chicago

Can you believe it’s the first anniversary of Pokémon GO? Niantic celebrates with the June 13 Solstice Event, and July 22’s Pokémon GO Fest, a real-life event, with more of both to come.

The first anniversary of Pokémon GO is here (we’re actually within a month of the official launch), and Niantic aren’t standing still! They’ve announced that GO has reached 750 million global downloads — whoa — and that there are many events, both in-game and real-world, coming to GO soon.

The Solstice Event — the Fire and Ice event that was previously leaked — features the aforementioned Pokémon types (presumably increased spawns of these Pokémon), “huge” XP bonuses for throwing the Poké Ball accurately, and discounted Lucky Eggs from the game’s shop.

Niantic have also vaguely promised new features for the coming months, warning that Gym functionality will be shut down for a short time in preparation for these features. Niantic make vague references to exactly what these new features are, but that they will “get you outside exploring the world with family and friends” with collaborative-focused features coming to the game soon. An interview published last month suggests Player-versus-Player (PvP) gameplay may be part of that.

Lastly, Niantic have announced real-life events happening for Pokémon GO, kicking off with a celebration titled Pokémon GO Fest. The event takes place in Illinois, Chicago, USA, and is happening on July 22. Niantic are vague about the “festivities” they’ll be running for the event, but tickets for the event will be available at pokemongolive.com/Fest. They further mention events coming to Europe and Japan. June through September, Europeans will see celebrations for the game held at Unibail-Rodamco’s shopping centres across the continent. In Japan, The Pokémon Company are announcing a “Pikachu Outbreak” in Yokohoma, taking place in August. The name already suggests what’s happening there. While details for all these events are sparse, further information on them will be divulged over the “coming weeks”, Niantic states.

How do you feel? Waiting for events to come to you? Having a sudden trip to Chicago sometime soon? Or maybe you want to speculate what updates are (finally) coming to GO. Leave a comment!

Link: Celebrating the First Anniversary of Pokémon GO!
Thanks to Achromatic for the tip!
Edited by bobandbill and Volpe Artica.