Over the Summer, which now feels like a long time ago, Pokemon GO was everywhere, and it reached such heights in terms of popularity that places such as Central Park were effectively shut down with the amount of people that rushed there to capture a few more Pokemon. When it finally launched in Japan – which was some time after it did so here in the West, Niantic chose to partner up with McDonald’s in a bid to get the game off the ground as well as give Pokemon GO players somewhere to head when they needed a little pick me up. Now, according to leaked documents from Starbucks, something similar could be happening here, too.
A trio of leaked internal memos from Starbucks clearly states that, starting this week on December 8th, the coffee chain will be partnering with Niantic. An FAQ slide found below outright states that “we have teamed up with Niantic Inc. […] to include nearly all of our U.S. company-operated stores to bring the Starbucks Experience to life for Pokemon GO players within our stores”. To do just that, Starbucks is preparing a new drink in honor of the new partnership, dubbed the Pokemon GO Frappuccino, and the majority of stores ran by Starbucks themselves – which means proper Starbucks stores and not kiosks or stores-within-stores – will become either a PokeStop or a Pokemon Gym. This sort of partnership appears similar to the one in Japan with McDonald’s, but it could be on a much, much larger scale given the vast amount of Starbucks stores across the country.
The leak in question also goes on to confirm that new Pokemon are indeed coming to Pokemon GO this week, starting December 8th. The leak says that new Pokemon are coming and that “the world of Pokemon GO is about to expand”. The leaked slides can be found below, and while this is the sort of thing that Niantic should have been doing over the Summer, it’s nice to see that they’re finally starting to expand the game in meaningful ways. It appears as though Starbucks will be getting something out of the deal as well, as hardocre Pokemon GO players – as well as those that may be looking to get back into the game – have a designated place to grab a coffee and a bite to eat, which could bring in more revenue over the Holiday period.
