Head to Somerset House to catch those Ultra Beasts
(Picture: Pokemon Go)A Pokemon Go event is scheduled to take place at London’s Somerset House, near Covent Garden, on Saturday, November 26.
The experience revolves around Ultra Beasts, mysterious creatures that have been making more appearances in the game over the past few months. Significantly, this event will mark the first time that all seven Ultra Beasts will be catchable in the same place. Special wild Pokémon encounters are also on the cards and participating players will get a commemorative in-game badge.
The event kicks off at 5pm local time, ahead of the arrival of the Ultra Beasts between 6pm and 7.30pm.
A global event will begin the following day, November 27, featuring five-star raids, timed research based on raid battles, with the opportunity to gain various event and group bonuses, like added XP and special e-counters. The full rundown of the Ultra Beast Arrival: Global event can be found in the latest Pokemon Go blog post.
While the fervour around Pokemon Go has died down since its blockbuster 2016 launch, the game still has a sizeable user base of more than 77 million active players, according to game statistics site ActivePlayer.io. It also nets more than $1 billion in revenue per year. The augmented-reality game sees players using their smartphones to capture Pokemon in real-world locations, with developer Niantic fostering its community with local events around the world.
However, like many companies in the tech industry, the studio has been forced to make layoffs in a turbulent economy. In late June, it was reported to have cut eight per cent of its staff, roughly 80 to 90 people. Niantic also shelved four upcoming games, including a Transformers title that it had already begun beta testing. Prior to that, the company shuttered its Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game in 2021, just two years after launch.
The latest Pokemon Go event comes on the heels of the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the latest instalment in the mainline series. As we noted in our review, it marks a promising new direction for the franchise, though it’s hampered by some lifeless graphics and noticeable lag times between cut scenes.
