You’ve definitely heard of Pokemon Go, the latest world-captivating mobile phenomenon. The app taps into the childhood dreams of twenty- and thirty-somethings, capitalizing on their nostalgia for Nintendo’s creature-collecting games. The Pokemon franchise is now two decades old, and with its massive, highly active global fan base, it was only a matter of time before the series received its own iteration on the most popular gaming device: mobile phones.
So, yes, we all know about Pokemon Go. But what about all the weird stuff attached to it? Rumors abound regarding the whereabouts of legendary Pokemon, the handful of fan-made apps dedicated to tracking down Pokemon, and terrible stories of car accidents, stabbings, and other destructive events. But which of these rumors are actually true? Here are 10 things you’ve definitely heard about Pokemon Go–and whether or not the stories hold water.
The Eevee “hack” is real–and it’s one of several hidden Easter eggs.
This one’s 100 percent true. One episode of the Pokemon anime features three trainers that each own an evolution of Eevee–Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon. By catching an Eevee and naming it after one of these trainers (Rainer, Pyro, and Sparky, respectively), you can control the version the creature evolves into.
At San Diego Comic-Con last week, head of developer Niantic John Hanke said more Easter eggs along the lines of the Eevee naming hack hide within Pokemon Go–but nobody’s found them yet. One easter egg could involve Ditto, which takes on the appearance of other Pokemon and mimics their behavior. The desperation to find Ditto is real, and one player even began naming all of his caught Pokemon “Ditto” in the hopes that would unlock the amorphous blob. But so far, no luck–and Ditto, as well as the other hidden tricks, remain untapped secrets.
You can only catch some Pokemon on certain continents.
Each continent has one Pokemon you can only catch in the wild in that particular location. For North America, it’s the bull Tauros. Mr. Mime is specific to Europe, the leek-toting bird Farfetch’d is Asia-only, and the marsupial-like Kangaskhan can only be found in Australia and New Zealand. South America’s region-exclusive Pokemon has yet to be revealed–Pokemon Go hasn’t launched there yet–but some guess it’s Ditto, since that Pokemon is still nowhere to be found elsewhere. Region-exclusive Pokemon can still be obtained outside their native regions via hatching eggs, however.
Nintendo’s stock skyrocketed–and then fell again when investors realized the company didn’t actually make Pokemon Go.
Nintendo actually stands to make the least amount of money from the runaway success of the mobile game, next to developer Niantic and The Pokemon Company. When the app first launched, Nintendo’s stock skyrocketed to its highest level in the past few months. The app is developed by Niantic Labs and The Pokemon Company, the latter in which Nintendo has a stake. After Nintendo released a statement saying the financial impact of Pokemon Go on their bottom line would be limited, Nintendo’s shares rapidly dropped as investors pulled out–as much as 18 percent in 24 hours, which is the maximum stocks can lower in a single day.
This is the lowest drop Nintendo’s stock has seen since 1990, though it remains higher than its pre-Pokemon Go listing. The company reiterated in its statement that it had already factored Pokemon Go into its earnings, and would likely not see more returns.
Pokemon Go has caused numerous car accidents.
Despite the fact that Pokemon Go tracks your speed and won’t credit your egg-hatching distance if you’re moving as fast as a car, that hasn’t stopped players from trying to manipulate the game anyway. Despite the fact that official government departments have posted tweets and put up road signs warning against the dangers of playing the app while driving, accidents continue to happen.
Since Pokemon Go’s early-July launch, distracted players have crashed into cop cars, into trees, and been hit by vehicles themselves. The lesson? Take Pokemon Go’s loading screen seriously: Always be aware of your surroundings. At this point, not enough players are listening to that warning. But even crazier…
A Pokemon Go player got stabbed–and still kept playing.
You should always be aware of your surroundings as you wander around playing Pokemon Go. And this story is unfortunately true. While playing Pokemon Go around 1 a.m. last month, a 21-year-old Oregon man was stabbed in the shoulder when he approached a stranger he mistakenly thought was also playing the game. The worst (or maybe best?) part about the incident is that the stabbed man continued to play Pokemon Go, delaying his inevitable trip to the hospital for stitches.
Other Pokemon Go-related tragedies have included two separate players finding a dead body as they searched a rural area.
The success of Pokemon Go helped Legendary Pictures seal the deal on a live-action Pokemon movie.
Less than two weeks after the launch of Pokemon Go, the long-in-talks Pokemon live-action movie finally, suddenly found a home. Legendary Pictures, the studio behind The Hunger Games films and recent Warcraft movie, got the rights after a long chase across all of Hollywood to nab the Pokemon IP. The movie won’t be based on the app, however. Instead, it’ll be a film about Detective Pikachu–a talking, crime-fighting version of the little yellow critter introduced in a game called Great Detective Pikachu that released in Japan earlier this year.
The runaway success of Pokemon Go and the resurgence in the brand’s mainstream popularity could be the reason why the film’s production has been fast-tracked to start in 2017. Let’s just hope they actually do get Danny DeVito to voice Pikachu.
Pokemon Go has unrestricted access to your Google Account.
Not anymore. Initially, Pokemon Go granted the app complete and total access to your Google account, which had many players up in arms and sparked wild rumors of the game’s connection to an NSA conspiracy. But after enough complaints, Niantic announced that the unrestricted access to players’ Google accounts was a mistake. A patch was quickly issued to trim down the information to which the app has access–now it only knows your location and catching data.
There’s no way to track where or when Pokemon will show up.
This is kind of true. Two tools that had become pretty popular among players looking for specific Pokemon were PokeRadar and PokeVision. PokeRadar is an additional app that you can download to your phone for up-to-date info on which Pokemon are where. PokeVision is a website you can call up on your browser that includes spawn-time notes on each Pokemon. These two programs were especially helpful for players tracking specific rare Pokemon or looking for the best spot in their city to find enough Magikarp in order to collect candies for a Gyrados.
However, Niantic wasn’t happy about these apps and over the weekend sent out cease and desist letters to PokeVision and several other tracking apps. Meanwhile, the company pushed an updated to Pokemon Go that removed the “three step” feature, which helped players track nearby Pokemon. Players have been left scrambling to figure out how to find the Pokemon they want, and Niantic has been silent on its plans.
Legendary Pokemon aren’t in the game.
Not true! Intrepid players have data-mined the app and discovered that the Legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres as well as Ditto, Mewtwo, and the Mystical Mew all exist within its code. The three birds and Mewtwo have their type listed as “Legendary,” while Mew is described as “Mythic.”
However, none of these Pokemon have spawned yet. When and how Niantic will finally make these Pokemon available is unknown, and it’s also difficult to hazard a guess. In a way, making these Pokemon readily available for everyone would cheapen their status as Legendary Pokemon. Since Pokemon Go is such a social game, having 75 million players–the current estimated number of times the game has been downloaded–walking around with a Mewtwo would cause balance issues. It’s a lot different than having a Mewtwo in one of the single-player handheld Pokemon titles.
For a full list of everything data-miners have found in the game’s source code, including which Pokemon are the most powerful, head over to Pokemon Fortress.
One week after launch, Pokemon Go was already making millions.
Yup. About $14 million, to be exact.
Pokemon Go can be played at no charge, but microtransactions allow players to acquire extra coins, Pokeballs, egg incubators, and other items. In-app purchases aren’t required, but they do confer a significant advantage–even the first Pokemon Go player to catch all 142 Pokemon currently available in the United States spent a bit of money to accomplish his goal.