Ed Sheeran is coming to Pokémon Go to serenade Squirtles in sun shades

Niantic has launched particulars of Pokémon Go’s upcoming Ed Sheeran collaboration in a new blog post, slightly over a day after first teasing the shocking crossover. The occasion kicks off on November twenty second at 2pm ET (11am PT), and can run for slightly over per week till November thirtieth. The principal function seems to be a efficiency of some type from Ed Sheeran, although what type this may take (a pre-recorded video? A digital Ed avatar?) isn’t in any respect clear.

Niantic says the efficiency will embody songs from Sheeran’s new album, titled = (sure, the title of the album is the equals signal), and that it’ll be accessible from the News part of the Pokémon Go app. Right now, this part is only a information feed of bulletins and weblog posts, so this doesn’t supply a lot of a touch about what form the efficiency will take.

With the occasion, Niantic seems to be making an attempt to observe within the footsteps of Epic Games, which has supplied a lot of in-game music occasions in Fortnite over time from artists like Travis Scott and Ariana Grande. Epic has cited popular culture occasions like these as a key a part of its try to develop Fortnite from a sport right into a metaverse-style social house, and Niantic hasn’t been shy about its personal metaverse plans.

As properly as Sheeran’s efficiency, the occasion will even embody extra typical Pokémon Go gameplay components. A variety of water-type pokémon and the particular sunglasses-wearing number of Squirtle will likely be obtainable to catch (“Ed always chooses the water-type pokémon as his first partner” you see), and there’ll even be a branded = sweatshirts you’ll be able to equip your avatar with. Over the course of the week, Ed Sheeran’s track “Overpass Graffiti” will even play in the course of the night time in-game.

In-game occasions like these are huge enterprise for Niantic. This year’s Go Fest event, which passed off in July, reportedly introduced in round $21 million in income over the course of two days, based on analytics agency Sensor Tower, Eurogamer reported.