'Pokémon GO': Is Niantic Planning Something Big for the Game's First Anniversary Celebration?
The first anniversary of "Pokémon GO" is right around the corner, but Niantic Labs has yet to announce if it has plans to celebrate the free-to-play mobile game's major feat on Thursday, July 6.
Fans posted their expectations for the first year celebration of the popular location-based augmented reality game on Reddit. Some are expecting to see a major content update for the game, while others opted not to expect much from the game developer since Niantic already released a big update in late June called the Raid Battles.
One of the fans is hoping to see a legendaries and a double XP/Stardust event during the game's anniversary. But another claims that it would be better not to expect anything from the game developer to avoid any disappointment. However, the fan revealed that he is hoping to see a new Pikachu hat released to make the game's special milestone.
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The new Raid Battles was dropped around the world where players can find one using the game's Nearby screen. This will allow them to defeat a vicious Raid Bosses within their location.
According to the definition released by Niantic, a Raid Battle features "a cooperative gameplay experience that encourages you to work with other Trainers to defeat an extremely powerful Pokémon known as the Raid Boss."
Meanwhile, VentureBeat claims that "Pokémon GO" already earned around $1.2 billion in sales since its release last year based on a report from a Boston-based app intelligence start-up company called Apptopia. The game was also reportedly downloaded 752 million times worldwide.
The report claims that while the first $950 million was earned by the game during 2016, it still managed to incur a significant sales this year. The start-up also revealed that the game had at least 60 million monthly players recorded in the month of June, including at least 20 percent of these players decided to open the game once a day.
Niantic has yet to make an announcement about the game's anniversary plans soon.
