With the Halloween season fast approaching, Pokemon GO players only have a few more days to take advantage of the Mega Raids to capture their own Mega Venusaur before it’s replaced by the more thematically appropriate Mega Gengar this weekend.
But that’s no longer the only major change happening this week. Earlier today, Niantic announced that is partnering with Verizon to bring exclusive benefits to players based in the United States, as well as to further improve the Pokemon GO experience for Verizon users.
For starters, as of today, Verizon users can obtain tickets for a Special Weekend on Saturday November 7th from 11am – 2pm local time, where they can take part in a Timed Research event to earn more XP, Incense, Stardust, and more. During this event, players can encounter Chansey, Spoink, Absol, Bronzor, Gible, and Sewaddle. Incense used during that time period will also attract special Pokemon, namely Bulbasaur, Charizard, Squirtle, Pikachu, Unown V, Unown Z, Sableye, Patrat, Minccino, and Ferroseed, with their being a possibility of that last one appearing in its Shiny form. Verizon users can also now get Verizon themed clothing for their avatar.
Non-Verizon users aren’t being completely ignored, though. In certain regions in the US, all players can receive a sponsored gift containing in-game items by spinning select PokeStops for the first time each day. Select Verizon stores will also become sponsored PokeStops or Gyms, which will give out Sponsored Field Research tasks, and then in 2021, some Verizon Gyms will host Legendary Raids for local players to take part in.
This isn’t the first time Verizon has struck a deal to have exclusive content in a video game. Only this year, Verizon-themed outfits could be acquired in Marvel’s Avengers, though that was mocked and derided by some for both the obvious advertising and the fact that Avengers was offering so much exclusive content between the various versions.
And judging by the responses on Twitter, most fans don’t seem impressed by the deal, pointing out how there’s no equivalent in any other country. Plus, while Niantic is still offering content for all players, it does state that it will only apply to certain regions of the US, meaning there are going to be a lot of American players that will still be left out, since they may be unable to access the free offerings.
Content being locked to separate regions is already controversial within gaming. For example, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, despite being a multiplayer focused game, has no local multiplayer and the online multiplayer is region-locked, meaning friends based in different countries can’t play together, a decision was met with near universal criticism.
Other players aren’t thrilled that two more varieties of Unown are locked behind the Verizon exclusivity, especially since Unown are otherwise very difficult to acquire. Niantic even did something like this before when it partnered with GrubHub, which offered an opportunity to catch the G and H Unown.
In other news, it’s been discovered that in the upcoming Crown Tundra DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield, players can only catch one of each Legendary Pokemon, but the catch is always guaranteed.
Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS devices.
Source: Niantic
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