Pokemon GO has now officially been running for five years. Starting today, the day of its release, a special anniversary event to celebrate the occasion will run until July 15th and allow players to encounter starter Pokemon from every generation added to the game so far, as well as flying Pikachu. But as anyone could guess, support for Pokemon GO is far from over.
Aside from the fact that the game is a massive money maker, generating over $1 billion in revenue in 2020 alone, Niantic still has two more generations of Pokemon to include, namely the ones from Pokemon Sun & Moon and Pokemon Sword & Shield, (Generations 7 and 8 respectively). Granted, some of the Galar forms and new evolutions of already available Pokemon are in the game, but none of the completely original Pokemon have been included yet. And while it's probably going to be a while before any Gen 8 Pokemon show up, Niantic appears to at least be teasing the arrival of Gen 7 Pokemon.
The official Pokemon GO Twitter recently uploaded an anniversary illustration. Every year, one of these is made to celebrate the game's anniversary and they usually contain teases for future Pokemon additions. In this case, fans can very easily notice the inclusions of Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio, the three starter Pokemon from Sun & Moon. It's too early to tell when they and any other Gen 7 Pokemon will actually appear in-game, but hopefully this tease indicates that it will happen this year.
Perhaps what's even more eye-catching is Mewtwo's appearance in the picture. More specifically, it's Mega Mewtwo X, one of its two possible Mega Evolutions. Mega Evolutions were added to the game only last year, but there are still a number of Pokemon missing theirs, Mewtwo being one of them. Since there's no sign of Mega Mewtwo Y in the illustration, it stands to reason that Mega Mewtwo X will be added first.
Despite the tease, there's no guarantee that Gen 7 Pokemon or any new Mega Evolutions will appear throughout 2021. As some fans have pointed out, previous anniversary pictures that featured Pokemon that wound up being absent from that year's content updates. Mega Lucario, for example, appeared in the picture for the fourth anniversary yet remains absent from the game. At the very least, these Pokemon will definitely be added at some point, it just remains a question of when.
Speaking of Mega Evolutions, this month is playing host to raids featuring these powerful forms. Right now, Mega Houndoom can be encountered until July 16th, with two others to follow in the coming weeks. There are also raids for Mewtwo itself and the Mythical Deoxys.
Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS.