‘Pokémon Go’ Raid Battles: Niantic had planned Legendary Raids from the very beginning

Pokémon Go raids went live a few weeks ago, and there’s been a pretty steep learning curve for them. Players needed to contend with trainer level (at least for a little while) and time restrictions, along with the threat of super-powerful Pokémon. There’s even speculation that legendary Pokémon will show up in raids at the live Chicago event.

But some fans have just learned that Niantic also had them planned all along.

Pokémon Go raid battles: The initial trailer for the game showed raid battles startlingly similar to the ones we’ve seen in-game

In a Silph Road post, DonBanaros observed that raids were in the pipe very early on. As they noted, the game’s initial trailer ends with a woman joining a raid for Mewtwo in Times Square.

Several posters commented that the Silph Road had already made this connection in the wake of the APK datamine that introduced raids. But what’s surprising is how closely in-game raids cleave to the depiction in the trailer. Sure, the assertion that Pokémon Go players would flood Times Square is a little much. But the countdown timer, the collaborative effort, the strength of the Pokémon they’re battling — it’s right there in the trailer.

Even wilder is that this trailer communicates the concepts behind raids so well that the Silph Road created their own for an April Fool’s event before Niantic was implementing raids in-game.

Granted, the trailer also shows proximity trading and player-vs-player battling. It’s possible that fans were expecting to get those features before raids. But it’s still impressive that Niantic was able to stick this closely to their initial concept, almost two years before they implemented the feature. That’s enough to make us excited for what’s in store.

More Pokémon Go news, updates, tips and tricks

Raids are here! See why they may be the key to legendary Pokémon. Find out how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, and see what we think of the Gen 2 Pokémon added to the game. Here are the kinds of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, and here’s where you can check out what you missed during the Water Festival and Solstice events. Find out more about the upcoming Chicago event and why you’ll probably be able to catch Unown while you’re there — if you’re not busy searching for rare evolutionary items, that is.