Sunday's 'Pokemon Presents' broadcast saw plenty of major announcements as fans of the Pokemon franchise celebrated the long-running monster-catching series' twenty-sixth anniversary. Alongside reveals like the highly-anticipated Daybreak update coming to Pokemon Legends: Arceus later today and the official announcement of Pokemon's ninth generation games in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Pokemon GO also joined in the festivities, with the popular mobile game announcing the newest set of Pokemon coming to the game.
Since Pokemon GO's release in 2016, Niantic and The Pokemon Company have steadily added new creatures to the game spanning the franchise's first sixth generations with the mobile game, even adding several from Pokemon's eighth generation to coincide with Pokemon Sword and Shield's release in 2019. The game has also added plenty of regional variations for many of the game's most popular Pokemon with popular variants like Alolan Exeggcutor and Hisuian forms from the recent Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Now, Niantic has officially announced the addition of Pokemon Sun and Moon's Alolan Pokemon to Pokemon GO .
Niantic officially announced during the Pokemon Day celebratory 'Pokemon Presents' broadcast that Alolan Pokemon would soon be added to Pokemon GO, teasing the starter evolution Decidueye during an animated trailer. While no official confirmation was given as to which Pokemon would be featured in the upcoming update, fans of the franchise's Alola region won't have to wait long to see some of their favorite Pokemon added to Pokemon GO. The announcement confirmed the Alola update will be coming to Pokemon GO on March 1st.
Alongside the addition of Alolan Pokemon to Pokemon GO early this week, The Pokemon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya also confirmed that Alolan Exeggcutor will be appearing more frequently for players in the days leading up to the Alola update. The announcement of the Alola region marks the seventh of Pokemon's eight major regions to be featured within Pokemon GO with previous datamines and leaks suggesting that the update will feature the full roster and potentially even the Legendaries and Ultra Beasts.
With the packed slate of announcements during Sunday's 'Pokemon Presents' broadcast, 2022 has the makings of a peak year for the Pokemon franchise. The newest main-series game, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, released to massive critical and commercial acclaim topping sales charts last month while the confirmation of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet set release dates for the dawn of Pokemon's ninth generation of games for later this year. Between the significant success of Pokemon's recent entries and the confirmation of the future of Pokemon coming very soon, the franchise will look to build on its recent accomplishments when Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release later this year.
Pokemon GO is available now for mobile devices. The Alola update will launch March 1st.