Pokemon Go’s Ninth Anniversary Event Was Seemingly A Disaster

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nine years since the release of Pokemon Go. That period was the closest to peace many of us have ever known, with whole communities coming together to catch virtual monsters across their towns and cities. Videos of players sprinting across New York encapsulated the joyous time, one of gaming’s biggest “you had to be there” moments ever. While many of those players have now lapsed, Pokemon Go still holds a vibrant player base, plenty of whom log in on a daily basis.

Ahead of today’s ninth anniversary, Pokemon Go celebrated with a special Gimmighoul-related event, and with the event now over, players have shared their frustrations, calling it the “most forgettable one yet”.

Pokemon Go’s Ninth Anniversary Event Was Seemingly A Total Failure

Over on the 5.5 million-strong Pokemon Go subreddit, players have been sharing their frustrations with the recent event. A new thread, which is only 12 hours old at the time of writing, has garnered over 1,000 upvotes and 200 comments from players calling it a “fiasco”.

The event promised players the “chance of finding nine or 99 Gimmighoul Coins when you spin a PokeStop with a Golden Lure Module,” with players needing 999 of the coins to evolve Gimmighoul into Gholdengo. But, while many expected to be swimming in Gimmighoul Coins following the event, it wasn’t uncommon for players to be left empty-handed.

“Started the event with 89 coins. Ended the event with 89 coins. I don’t understand how they f***ed that up so badly,” said officialsmolkid. AgentFreckles added, “They literally made the coins unattainable. I spun golden stops like 20 times and only got coins 3 times.” This was a complaint echoed dozens of times throughout the thread. There were even multiple reports of the Golden PokeStops turning blue as soon as players approached them, locking them out of getting the coins.

They literally made the coins unattainable.

The complaints didn’t focus solely on the coin situation, either. Starter Pokemon from the series’ various regions were more common in the wild; However, players reported extreme difficulty catching them. Loud_Examination_138 said, “The Starter Pokemon catch rates were just plain annoying and ruined the event for me. I shouldn’t need to throw multiple excellent Ultra Balls,” with Thesilverfoxetter adding, “That really got under my skin too. CP 22 Charmander breaking out of an Ultra Ball with a Raspberry? Yeah…no.”

Gimmighoul, half buried in coins in a treasure chest, throws golden coins towards the viewer. — Gimmighoul, by Kouki Saitou

It’s been an interesting period between Pokemon Go’s eighth and ninth anniversaries. While the game has continued to truck along with its usual array of events, Pokemon releases, and community days, the year will be remembered for the news that Scopely purchased the title from original creators Niantic. While we’re still likely seeing events laid out by the latter, it doesn’t set a great precedent going forward.