Thanks to a new bug discovered in its popular mobile game, Pokémon GO, Nintendo recently gave its players an unexpected surprise. During the game’s weekly Spotlight Hour event, players began to encounter the rarely seen Zorua in place of the normal Pokémon featured in the event. Although the surprise was quickly remedied by Nintendo, the unexpected moment has made waves throughout both the Pokémon GO and Nintendo fan communities alike.
Surprise Summon
The Spotlight Hour events are held weekly in Pokémon GO and feature increased numbers of one particular Pokemon species appearing as part of the event. On April 13th, however, players were greeted with an entirely different pokemon than what was expected when they participated in the Spotlight hour event. Rather than Aipom, as was advertised by developer Niantic Labs prior to the event’s start, players instead saw hordes of rare Zorua appear over their phones screens.
Players quickly took to social media and other outlets to voice their surprise and confusion at this sudden occurrence. Some hypothesized that it could have been a special gift from Niantic for those who participated in their April Fools Day campaign earlier that week. Whatever caused it however it was clear that this appearance was not planned for or intended by Niantic.
Quick Response
It didn’t take long for Niantic’s response team to take action though. Within hours they released a statement saying they were aware of what had happened and were working on fixing it.
“We’re aware that some Trainers encountered Zorua instead of Aipom during our April 13th ‘GO Spotltight’ hour,” wrote Niantic on Twitter later that day “We are investigating this issue and will release further information once available.” They later revealed that there