Ahead of Pokémon Go’s 10th anniversary next year, we've been wondering what that huge landmark might entail. Can you believe it's nearly 10 years since the original Pokémon Go summer?
According to Michael Steranka, Pokémon Go’s senior product director, next year's decade-marking celebrations will be "a Pokémon fan's dream come true".
Steranka has been part of the Niantic team and working his way up since 2017, a year after Go’s original launch. We got the chance to chat with him at Go Fest.
While being unable to share specifics, he did clarify that there are some "really amazing things that players are going to truly enjoy and be excited to experience".
"Our 10-year anniversary has been one of my personal main projects that I've been focused on over the past year and a half, two years by now," he explains.
"And so, we have a number of things in development. We have a number of experiences planned, nothing specific I can share right now — but just know that, especially because it's not just Pokémon Go's 10-year anniversary, it's the Pokémon franchise's 30-year anniversary as well, I think next year is going to be a Pokémon fan's dream come true, basically."
Even on Go Fest 2025 itself, Steranka spoke about how "almost every single team at the company touches Go Fest in some way, shape or form".
Also including the "player experience team [being] on site, to help with any technical troubleshooting", Steranka laid out that the "entire organisation" contributes in some way — which coincides with "balancing with a long-term vision and content of the game" itself.
So, it’s a relief to hear that Pokémon Go’s director has been giving the game’s big birthday the time it needs to cook just right across all the chefs taking part.
After all, while each Go Fest sees regular big names on the global level like Steranka turn up, it also gives the developer’s local teams the chance to show their stuff by hosting the event, along with sharing how they’ve been engaging with their communities and what they’ve got planned.
While Kabongo couldn’t disclose any details either, he could reassure us that "the communities in France and all the countries will definitely be very excited", along with the prediction that "the community will keep growing as much as they’ve been over the past months".
Kabongo also mirrored much of the rest of Niantic’s enthusiasm for the game going forward, despite what could easily be argued about a live-service game of its age.
When any game reaches a long lifespan as Pokémon Go has, it’s easy to worry gameplay and content output might become stagnant.
That self-awareness seems to have provided Pokémon Go with added longevity, since it has given Niantic the chance to take steps back and "make sure people have an opportunity to breathe", and letting the team do the same by "[improving] the baseline experience of the game" instead.
As Steranka also interestingly put it: "Pokémon Go never stays constant, right? We always want to adapt with what we're sensing from the player base at any given time."
With the deal being so fresh, it’s likely we won’t see the long-term impact of the Scopely acquisition for a while.
If Steranka’s continued vision and Scopely’s mentioned empowerment work out, hopefully Kabongo’s words can come true.
While we wait to see what next year has in store, and the future beyond that, why not try our quiz below?
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