Niantic has just announced Pokémon GO gets a referral program in the near future. The newly announced referral program will focus on first-time and returning players, similar to the Site a Friends program from World of Warcraft.
The program will start testing in Australia (🦘), similar to how previous features were tested and set up. At present we do not know the exact mechanics, but we do know the following:
- The Pokémon GO reference program is aimed at players and players who have not played for a while
- Both you and your referring friend will receive rewards for reaching milestones during their 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 would introduce a referral program. I personally think this is a great way to attract old players and possibly recruit new coaches.
The game’s population has been fairly steady over the past few years, with the number of players only being noticed during major launches (Trainer Battles, Remote Raids, new Pokémon generations, etc.). From a business perspective, it would be foolish not to try to get attention from players who unloaded the wagon during 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Pokémon GO has aged a lot over the last few years and it has been shown that a mobile game can have a strong endurance in the modern game market. I really see no downside to this, except for the possible influx of fake and alt accounts, but let’s hope Niantic can design a game loop to counteract this.
It is also noteworthy to mention that returning players can influence the Lucky Pokémon meta in an important way. I want to imagine that most of us have exhausted the “Old Pokémon Offer” this guarantees Lucky Trades. An injection of returning players can help shake it up a bit and give new players a place to acquire strong Pokémon in Lucky Trading.
Let’s see how the Australian implementation works out, especially in terms of progression rewards. Carefully optimistic!