Niantic has unveiled its initial plans for Pokémon Go Fest 2025, revealing the dates and locations for the three biggest events of the year.
In a surprising move, Niantic has announced that Pokémon Go Fest this year will begin its tour in Osaka, Japan, from May 29 to June 1. It will then head to Jersey City, USA, from June 6 to 8 and finish in Paris, France, from June 13 to 15. The dates for the annual Global event have not been revealed at this time.
Outside of the dates and locations, there are currently no details on what Pokémon will feature at each event or what the flagship Pokémon will be. Niantic has also never revealed the dates this early, which has excited trainers who can now properly prepare for travel without having to find hotels and flights on a month’s notice.
The dates are also significantly earlier than last year’s Go Fest, which ran through a very warm June to July. Niantic likely took on feedback from trainers who attended last year complaining about the dates due to the scorching weather trainers encountered while in Sendai, Japan, New York, USA, and Madrid, Spain, in 2024.
Our hopes for Go Fest 2024
A long line of encounters could appear at Go Fest 2024, but our biggest would have to be seeing the release of Arceus, Manaphy, and Phione as the flagship Pokémon.
The three Sinnoh Pokémon have been missing for some time now while other regions get their completed Pokédex, so Go Fest creates an interesting possibility to not only add these into the game, whether through Raids or Special Research, but equally, you can have Phione appear in special eggs only available during Go Fest. We doubt any of them would get the Shiny treatment immediately, but it would at least give trainers a complete Sinnoh Pokédex.
We would also love to see shiny Scatterbug make an appearance at these in-person events and the release of Poké Ball pattern Vivillon alongside it.
A host of Shiny forms are also crying out to be added to the game that Niantic is likely holding onto. Still, in terms of the regional Pokémon, we would like to see readily available, something like Hawlucha would be a fan-favorite Pokémon to appear at these events. You can only get it by going to Mexico, so adding it to Go Fest would open it up to larger parts of the world that can’t travel to South America anytime soon.
Published: Jan 6, 2025 08:58 am