Earlier this month, Pokemon GO dataminers turned up what was believed to be evidence of Pokemon Generation 4. The strings, which included the phrase "badge_pokedex_entries_gen4_title : “Sinnoh” led many to think that a release of Gen 4 is right around the corner. Any day now, many agreed, Gen 4 would be released.

Unfortunately, a new development suggests that the Pokemon GO Gen 4 release may be farther off than expected. After the Sinnoh string was found in the game's network traffic, dataminers have now found that this string has been removed from the game's downloaded localization files. While the inclusion of the string in the network traffic would have suggested that a release is imminent, the fact that it has been removed suggests that it was accidentally included.

This isn't the first false alarm about the Gen 4 release. Right at the beginning of the month, many fans speculated that the Gen 4 release date was connected to Spinda. Fans posited that the different versions of Spinda (it has different spot variations) pointed to developer Niantic's plans to release the new Pokemon. Per the fan theory, Gen 4 Pokemon would be released by the end of September. That could happen, ultimately, but at the moment the theory doesn't look all that plausible.

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However, despite fans being unsure of when Gen 4 is going to be released in Pokemon GO, few have any doubts that the new Pokemon generation is on the way. Although the Sinnoh string was removed from the game's files, the fact that it was there in the first place confirms that Niantic is at least gearing up towards its release.

Moreover, Niantic has released other teasers for the new Pokemon generation. For instance, in a tweet prompting fans to respond with their favorite and most memorable Pokemon GO moments, Niantic attached an image that included Gen 4 Pokemon Piplup, Chimchar, and Turtwig. Given the effort that goes into creating an image like that, it seems highly unlikely that Niantic included the Gen 4 characters accidentally. Rather, it's a subtle confirmation that Gen 4 really is on the way.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Niantic is ready to release Gen 4 just yet. Further updates to the game (and datamining that discover these changes) will likely be available in the coming weeks and months, but for now, the Gen 4 release date isn't any clearer.

Pokemon GO is available on iOS and Android devices.

Source: Pokemon GO Hub