Did 'Pokemon Go' Leak a Gen 8 Pokemon?

As we all very vividly remember, Pokemon Go blew the online gaming and phone gaming world away in July 2016. Although the hype of the real world Pokemon experience has died down dramatically since the game dropped two years ago, it still has a great number of players who've either played since the beginning or have started between then and now. Either way you twist it, Pokemon Go has had two very strong years of gameplay/downloads in both the Google Play App store and Apple App Store. And we can't disagree with those numbers when you think about their new releases such as the "Celebi and Mew Research Quests," the recent update that gave its users the ability to trade and add each other, and their monthly Community Day events. Their last community day fell this Saturday, September 22nd. The next Community Day will fall on October 21, 2018.

But on Friday, Pokemon Go did something, none of its players were expecting.

The Release

Friday, September 21st around 9:00 EST in North America: Reports began flooding Twitter and Facebook of a new Pokemon interaction on the Pokemon Go App.

Here Comes the "New Game" Hype

For those who don't necessarily know. Nintendo released a Nintendo Direct news video a few months ago about their newest Pokemon projects.

It was announced that we'd be getting quite a few new Pokemon games for the Nintendo Switch gaming console. One of the biggest being a whole new adventure and generation which is super exciting for anyone who has fallen in love with the series in Gen 1 through 7 or even on the Pokemon Go App, this game isn't set to release until early 2019.

However to hold onto our excitement we received a Free-to-Play Pokemon Quest adventure game, and in November of 2018 we will finally be able to play the combination game of Go and Pokemon Yellow in Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, where at the end of the game when every Pokemon has been entered fully into the Pokedex by interacting and successfully catching the Pokemon a new never-before-seen Pokemon would then appear. This Pokemon is confirmed to be from Generation 8.

What does the new game have to do with Pokemon Go?

Here's where it gets interesting. Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee is designed to cross play with the Pokemon Go App. You can, as a Pokemon Go player, send your Pokemon into the game of Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, this can only be done once per Pokemon, so choose your Pokemon wisely. Whatever you send into the land of Let's Go will remain there.

But of course, for those who don't play the Pokemon Go App, the game is still a remake of the beloved Pokemon Yellow Version and with graphics used and mastered after visiting the world of Pokemon X/Y who wouldn't want to revisit a childhood classic in a 3D setting?

Plus if you do decide to buy the PokeBall Joycon controller, you can bring your favorite Pokemon out on your real-world adventures.

Either way you play the game, this Mysterious Pokemon that showed up this past weekend in Pokemon Go will appear once you've completed logging all 150 Pokemon into the Pokemon Pokedex.

What We Know About This Mysterious Pokemon

We don't know much, just that the file name in the Pokemon Go App for this mysterious Pokemon is called "Pokemon 891." 891 is most likely the Pokedex number.

In the Pokemon Go App, this Pokemon changes shape and becomes a Ditto. Which, if you were having trouble finding one for the Mew research quest, is a gift from Niantic with the amount of encounters players have had with this Pokemon.

So did Niantic leak the new Pokemon?

My answer, yes. But no. Yes, because we now know it's Dex entry and what it looks like and it's general height (it's super small), and appears to travel in packs. No, because we're so close to the Let's Go release date and what Pokemon Go has told us is all we know about this mysterious Pokemon.

It was an exciting surprise and got everyone up and out of the house for a few hours to look for this new Pokemon. Seeing as 'Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee' are being released in less than two months and this Pokemon is most likely the surprise encounter at the end of the game, it makes a lot of sense why this mysterious Pokemon is appearing and changing into Ditto.