'Pokémon GO' Johto Region Expansion: Is It a Little Too Late?
Niantic Labs' "Pokémon GO" has been trying its very best to stay afloat in the competitive arena of mobile games with various events, with the Valentine's Day event as its latest, yet players are still clamoring for Generation 2. Loyal gamers got their wish last Feb. 16 as Johto region Pokémon finally began spawning on the overworld.
On the game's official website, the changes entailed within the 0.57.2 Android and 1.27.2 iOS updates were carefully detailed. From an overhauled user interface (UI) to new avatar outfits, it carried a huge amount of new content, but none more explosive than the release of more Pokémon first introduced in "Pokémon Gold & Silver."
This was indeed what every Pokémon trainer has been waiting for, but some players chose to be bitter and say it should have been introduced months before. With that argument in mind, is the Johto expansion a bit too late?
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It is no secret that "Pokémon GO's" popularity is not as it used to when it first launched in which it earned a whopping $200 million during its first month alone, CNBC reports. Players getting tired of waiting for their desired features may have caused it to go down the charts, currently placing at the 32nd spot in the iOS App Store's top-grossing category, and at 93rd place in Google Play's top charts.
There are those players, however, who remain optimistic and loyal to the game. These groups of gamers clap back against haters who keep saying that "No one cares, the game is dead" and simply brush off such comments.
To prove that the game is alive and well, just days after the update, players have already discovered how to evolve Eevee into its Generation 2 eeveelutions — Espeon and Umbreon — by renaming them to Sakura and Tamao, respectively. More gamers are sharing pictures of their newly caught generation 2, showing the hype is real.
As for the argument of being too late, it can be recalled that "Pokémon Red & Blue" launched in 1998 and then was followed by new Pokémon in "Pokémon Gold & Silver" in 2000. So in all fairness to Niantic they are working fast, bringing Generation 2 within a year.
In conclusion, is the game dead? It probably is, but only to those who think so. But for loyal players who continue to catch them all, it continues to capture their imagination by bringing their childhood dreams into reality.
