Pokemon Go news: New Gen 3 update could arrive very soon and here’s why

Pokemon Go news this week has been dominated by the latest updates launched by Niantic.

It appears the combination of new Pokemon content in December helped bring the game back up the ranks in a big way.

It has now been confirmed that Pokemon Go helped create a surge of spending around the festive holidays, something that may have taken some by surprise.

While numbers of players may have dropped from the high watermarks of the past, that doesn’t mean it’s finished.

In fact, it appears the release of the new Gen 3 Pokemon, paired with the launches of Weather Effects, new AR features and loot boxes, created a massive surge for Niantic.

Apple recently revealed that its App Store made $890 million in revenue, the week beginning Christmas Eve.

And guess which game was riding high during that time?

Here’s more from Gamesindustry.biz, who confirm: “Amongst the hit apps during the period was Pokémon Go, which returned to the top of the charts on December 21st. 

“The game received additional promotional following the introduction of its new augmented reality features. 

“Apple has been aggressive in pushing its ARKit technology, and there are already almost 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps on the Store. 

“These include games like CSR Racing 2, King of Pool and Stack AR, alongside non-games products such as the Amazon app, Night Sky and Snapchat.”

But the astounding Pokemon Go news can’t just be put down to the ARKit, as the game also saw a major boost on Android devices.

It was noted that the Pokemon App also saw a massive jump on the Google Playstore, going from 17th to 2nd top grossing app in the USA.

So it’s fair to say that the new Generation 3 Pokemon and Festive event must have had a big effect on proceedings.

It also might be a way to gauge what Niantic will do next in 2018.

With Pokemon Go having done so well with their recent box offers and Gen 3 releases, it seems that we may see a new launch soon.

Niantic have already confirmed that they will be releasing Generation 3 in waves, and it would make sense that they would want to keep this kind of momentum going into the new year.

Unfortunately, last year didn’t exactly see a long list of big releases in January, meaning there’s no prior event to point to coming up soon.

It should be noted that Niantic did release a lot of Gen 2 Pokemon on February 15, 2017, although fans might be hoping for news sooner than that.

Currently, Pokemon Go is ranked 13th in the Playstore, meaning a new boost in Gen 3-types could help move it back up the table again.

Pokemon Go fans were also treated to a surprise this week, as two Gen 3 Pokemon switched places.

Mirroring their famous rivalry in the Pokemon games and TV show, Gen 3 regional exclusives Seviper and Zangoose have now swapped places.

UK players can now catch Zangoose, while Seviper has migrated to the US, Canada, South America and Africa.

With Niantic yet to make an official announcement, it’s unclear how long the switch will last.

There’s no mention of fellow regional exclusives Plusle and Minun, which are yet to switch.

Likewise, rare Gen 3 Pokemon Relicanth can only be found in the South Pacific.