Niantic has just announced that Pokémon GO will receive a referral program in the near future. The newly announced referral program will focus on both beginning and returning players, similar to the Recruit a Friend program in World of Warcraft.
The program will start testing in Australia (🦘), similar to how the previous features were tested and adjusted. At this point, we don’t know the exact mechanics, but we do know the following:
- The Pokémon GO referral program will target both novice players and players who have not played for some time
- You and your referral friend will receive rewards for reaching milestones on your adventure
- Rewards include Pokémon encounters, Rare Candy, Incubators and more
Our thoughts and impressions
Pokémon GO has been on the market for almost five years now, and it was only a matter of time before Niantic presented a referral program. I personally think this is a great way to attract old players and potentially recruit new managers.
The game’s population has been quite stable over the past few years, with peaks in the number of players seen only during the release of great features (Trainer Battles, Remote Raids, new generations of Pokémon, etc.). From a business point of view, it would be foolish not to try to regain the attention of players who abandoned the movement during 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Pokémon GO has matured a lot in recent years and has shown that a mobile game can have a strong staying power in the modern gaming market. I don’t really see a downside to this, except for the potential influx of fake and alt accounts, but let’s hope that Niantic can create a gameplay loop to combat this.
It is also important to mention that the return of players can affect the Pokémon Lucky goal in a significant way. I like to imagine that most of us have exhausted the “Supply of old Pokémon” which guarantees Lucky Trades. An injection of recurring players can help to shake this up a bit and provide a place for new players to get strong Pokémon in lucky negotiations.
Let’s see how the Australian launch works, especially in terms of progression rewards. Carefully optimistic!