Pokemon Go datamine shows subscription service could be coming

Pokemon Go could be getting a subscription service soon according to code discovered by fans. A new datamine suggests that Niantic might be gearing up to add a recurring payment option for the hit mobile title. 

Ever since its debut in 2016, Pokemon Go has continued to be a cultural phenomena. In 2020, the mobile title actually had its highest grossing profits since launch as millions of players continue to obsess over catching their favorite ‘mon in the real world.

Despite its incredible success, the community has been weary over the years over the game’s increase in paid ticket events and monetization. Now, a new datamine points towards Niantic possibly adding a subscription service soon. Here is everything we know.

Pokemon Go code refers to a subscription service

The rumor first spread online on January 15 after dataminers looking over the game’s APK discovered new code that refers to a recurring service. A subscription in Go is hardly a new concept as murmurs of Niantic implementing one seems to pop up every year without ever coming true.

The latest datamine dump has many fans worried though, as it’s the most complete evidence yet that one could be arriving – and possibly soon. Curiously, the data includes terms such as “expired”, “grace period”, and “cancelled” which certainly sounds like a subscription of sorts.

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Even if Go is getting a service, it could be for a variety of things. And of course, not all information in a datamine is final. Below we will list the code that has many speculating:

• SubscriptionState
• ACTIVE
• CANCELLED
• EXPIRED
• GRACE_PERIOD
• FREE_TRIAL
• PENDING_PURCHASE
• AutoRenewDate
• ValidatedSubscriptionSkuInfo
• .get_SubscriptionId
• .set_SubscriptionId
• isVendorItem
• canBePurchased
• virtualCurrencyPrice
• virtualCurrencyGranted
• presentationData
• isActiveSubscription
• TIMEOUT_MS RETRY_DELAY_MS

Popular dataminer ‘PokeMiners’ took to Twitter to clarify what the data could mean after fans reacted to the new information. “What we know: A ‘subscription’ is a Store item (just like items, tickets, stickers, etc). This item has a current state like active, cancelled, expired, etc. It has an auto-renew date,” they said.

They also went on to explain what is currently unknown about the code: “What we don’t know/have no indication of at this time: What the subscription is for; there is currently no indication that any existing feature will be locked behind this subscription item. How much it will cost. How long the auto-renew date is for.”

So it’s not entirely clear at the time of writing what exactly the subscription is even going to be should it come to fruition. Based on the language though, it seems to point to some kind of recurring service.

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Only time will tell if the new data comes to reality. Reactions so far have been mixed as some fans worry about the game being monetized further.