Two big names are leaving Game Freak

Happy Sunday and welcome back to The Victory Road, your one-stop shop for Pokémon news curated across the internet.

Pokémon GO June Community Day - the Deino deets

Deino-mite! Our next Community Day is coming June 25, 11am-2pm local time (sort of like half-Christmas, no?). This month features Deino, but with a few new twists.

Aside from Deino appearing more frequently in the wild, and shiny encounter odds raised, Niantic has a new group bonus cooked up: if enough Pokémon are caught from a single lure module, wild Zweilous (Deino's 2nd stage) will appear near the Lured Pokéstop.

Plus, after Community Day ends, trainers will have three hours to challenge "unique four-star Raid Battles" featuring Zweilous. If you win one of these raids, more Deino will appear around the Gym that hosted the raid for 30 minutes. (You can't use remote raid passes for these unique raids, unfortunately).

Aside from these new group gimmicks, here's the regular event bonuses:

• 1/4 Hatch Distance when Eggs are placed into Incubators during the event period.

• 2× chance to receive Deino Candy XL from catching Deino.

• 2× Candy for catching Pokémon.

• Lure Modules activated during the event will last for three hours.

• Incense activated during the event will last for three hours.

• Take a few snapshots during Community Day for a surprise!

• One additional special trade can be made during the event and up to five hours afterward for a maximum of three for the day.

• Trades made during the event and up to five hours afterward will require 50% less Stardust.

Masuda steps down from Game Freak

Junichi Masuda, of the "Masuda method" Pokemon breeding fame and one of Game Freak's founders, announced he's stepping down from Managing Director to become The Pokémon Company's "Chief Creative Fellow." (Cue, for he's a jolly good fellow playing over and over in your head the rest of the day).

It doesn't seem like this move was due to any internal strife, especially since he's taking a much larger role over the entire franchise, not just the mainline games. Still, this is a MAJOR change. Masuda was a programmer on Red and Blue, then directed Ruby, Sapphire, X, and Y. He also had his hand in Pokémon design and even the music for the mainline games.

Masuda also designed the concept for Pokémon GO. While he hasn't directed a game since Let's Go, Scarlet and Violet will mark the first titles that are completely without his involvement. Huge thanks to and best wishes on the new gig!

Pokémon Art Director leaves Game Freak to found his own studio

Another big name is departing Game Freak on Masuda's heels. James Turner (not to be confused with pirates Will or Bootstrap Bill Turner) was the art director for Sword and Shield. He also has the unique title of the first westerner to officially design a Pokémon.

Here's the list of his creations:

• Shadow Lugia

• Vanillite, Vanillish, Vanilluxe

• Golett, Golurk

• Vullaby, Mandibuzz

• Phantump, Trevenant

• Buzzwole, Guzzlord, Poipole, Naganadel

• Gigantamax Gengar

• Centiskorch

• Sinistea, Polteageist

• Galarian Zigzagoon, Linoone and Obstagoon

Since joining Game Freak in 2010, Turner also worked on Pokémon Colosseum, and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. His new company, All Possible Futures is releasing their first title, The Plucky Squire, on Switch, PS, Xbox and PC in 2023.

Obscure Pokémon Fact of the Day (from u/Mx_Toniy_4869)

Gotta go—faxing my resume to Game Freak -Derek

Missed last week's email? We broke down everything there is to know (so far) about Scarlet and Violet.

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