In today’s Pokémon GO news roundup, we go over Niantic’s recent mishap with Shadow Articuno, Canada gets a new PokéStop sponsor, and GO+ (and GO++) break with the 0.289 update. Sit back and enjoy the ride!
Shadow Articuno is here until November 30, 2023
Trainers, we'd like to clarify that Shadow Articuno is currently available in five-star Shadow Raids until November 30.
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) November 8, 2023
The mystery has been solved! When Niantic announced events that will take place in Pokémon GO during November 2023, there was no mention of Shadow Articuno anywhere, but players started reporting that Shadow Articuno was indeed the 5-Star Shadow Raid boss.
Unsurprisingly, we thought this was an unintentional bug, given that the recent Team GO Rocket Takeover featured Shiny Shadow Lugia and Shadow Regigigas, and we expect Niantic to turn off Articuno and give us something more exciting.
Articuno (Shadow)
But alas, yesterday Niantic Support confirmed that Shadow Articuno is here to stay, all the way until November 30, 2023. You can check the full list of Shadow Raid Bosses on our Pokémon GO Current Raids (November 2023) page.
McDonalds is a new PokéStop Sponsor in Canada
McDonalds just can’t get enough Pokémon GO, can they? Over the past few years, we’ve seen McDonald’s partnering up with Pokémon GO in France, and then Pokémon GO announced New Sponsored Locations With McDonalds in 23 countries, and they certainly have a special thing going on in Japan.
Well, this time around it is Canada’s time to enjoy a Big Mac with a side of Shiny spawns, as Redditor’s from the maple leaf country flocked to report that McDonalds sponsored PokéStops are appearing across Canada (source).
Currently confirmed locations include Waterloo (Ontario), Calgary (Alberta), Québec, etc. Curiously, one redditor shared that this is likely a tie-in with the Pokémon Cards Happy Meal promotion!
- McDonald’s is bringing back the Pokemon card promotion for 2023, allowing fans to collect 15 more Pokemon cards through their Happy Meals.
- The promotion will feature cards based on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
- McDonald’s restaurants in Germany and Austria will start the promotion in July, with the UK following in August. The release date for the US and other countries is yet to be announced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJZyc1TWOQ
Update anxiety – 0.289 breaks GO+/GO++ connectivity for some
The newest 0.289 Pokémon GO update has been confirmed to break GO+ and GO++ connectivity for some Trainers. As often is the case, it is very hard to pinpoint which Android device + Android version combination is the most likely to break, but so far we have:
- Samsung S10 (Android 12) works, but notification is broken, says not connected
- Samsung Galaxy S20 with Android 13 works, broken notifications
- Xiaomi 13 with Android 14 doesn’t work
- Redmi Note 10 Pro with Android 13 doesn’t work
- Pixel 7 with Android 14 doesn’t work
- Pixel Pro 7 with Android 14 doesn’t work
It looks like the majority of issues are grouped around devices running Android 14, and it either falls into “notifications don’t work” or “the device doesn’t work at all” bucket. We hope Niantic fixes this fast, GO+ and GO++ owners have been hurt a lot over the years.
