Two years after a Pokémon Go player took a screenshot to voice concerns about spawns near beaches, Niantic ironically used the very same image in today’s promotion.
The eagle-eyed player recognized their own image, zoomed in for confirmation, and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Pokémon Go literally took my screenshot from the subreddit from two years ago and used it in their official social media post,” the player mentioned in a new thread, sharing a link to their original with that image.
Funny enough, the promotion had a caption that read, “Does something look out of place to you?” It was for the Adventures About event on Twitter. The promotion showed someone playing Pokémon Go on their phone near a cruise ship.
And, strangely, the picture on the phone was the player’s screenshot.
The community found the whole situation hilarious. Many thought it was super funny Niantic used a screenshot that was meant to criticize Pokémon Go in their promo. Others laughed at how the player spotted it and even zoomed in to make sure it was theirs.
Everyone was left wondering, “How did this even happen?” Most people guessed developers at Niantic probably just simply searched for ‘Pokémon Go screenshot’ online and picked one they liked without really checking its background. But many felt it would have been simpler for Niantic to just take its own screenshot.
That wasn’t the only mistake in the promotion. The screenshot showed a touch indicator on the screen, which only appears when someone touches it. But the person in the ad wasn’t touching the phone’s screen, so that indicator shouldn’t be there.
Players noticed this and were quick to mention it. Some even made jokes, saying it was probably just the game lagging.
This whole thing has gotten a lot of attention. It doesn’t make Niantic look bad, but it does make them seem careless. Maybe they’ll be more careful when making promos in the future.
