‘Pokemon GO’ Update: Sprint Stores Turned Into Gyms, PokeStops After Niantic Tie-up; New December Update Reveals 7 New Gen 2 Pokemon

Niantic and Sprint recently announced its partnership through the augmented reality game Pokemon Go's new Poke Stops and gyms placed on Sprint, Boost Mobile, and Radio Shack locations across the United States. Along with the said tie-up, the Pokemon Company International revealed new update on the game's Gen 2 Pokemon release.

Following the announcement, Sprint, Boost Mobile and RadioShack stores started allowing customers to collect in-game items such as Eggs and Poké Balls in their shops, which will aid trainers in their Pokemon-hunting journey.

The Sprint carrier even extended the partnership between Niantic by offering unlimited data offers on its subscribers. The carrier currently has an offer for up to three lines of unlimited data, talk and text for customers who switch to Sprint and sign up for Unlimited Freedom with AutoPay at $20 per month per line for a family of five.

Accordingly, customers who presently have two lines could add a third, fourth and fifth line, which they should get for free. The said offer will only allow customers who will add the lines by the end of December.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure extended his support for the Pokemon GO community by making them worry-less about exceeding data allocation while searching the street for Pokemon.

"This collaboration with Pokémon GO brings together two innovative, groundbreaking and creative brands that will offer Trainers greater accessibility and destinations to advance their game," Claure said in a news release.

According to CNET, the Sprint deal marks the first partnership for Niantic and Pokemon Go, which showed a massive ability to drive traffic to specific locations such as shops, landmarks and parks. Now, the Sprint CEO is expecting "a huge uptick in traffic" as players will come in to collect items or challenge gym leaders in the carrier's respective stores.

With the challenges of Sprint in bringing traffic to its stores, Claure suggested that the partnership could serve as a way to advertise.

On another note, Kotaku learned that Niantic released its latest patch for the Pokemon GO game, which welcomes seven new Generation 2 Pokemon into the roster. However, the new "baby" Pokémon came with a more challenging stint. Players can only hatch the said Pokemon with eggs coming from PokeStops by walking two to ten kilometers.

From the original 150 monsters in the game, players can now get Magby, Elekid, Smoochum, Pichu, Togepi, Igglybuff and Cleffa. Also, a Santa-hat-wearing Pikachu is now spawning all over the world in time for Christmas season.