Since the game launched, we’ve all seen constant reports of legendary Pokemon. Screenshots of Mew 2 were a dime a dozen. We also got our hopes up for a peculiar shadow that only ended up being Fearow. So none of us thought anything of it when a player announced that they found legendary ice bird, Articuno. The player was instantly dismissed as a liar. But just like with hatching region specific Pokemon, we were wrong. Niantic confirmed the report. Then, they did a little extra.

We recently noticed that a few Legendary Pokemon got into a few accounts when they shouldn’t have. To preserve the game’s integrity and as a measure of fairness, we have rectified the situation and revoked the legendary Pokemon from the Trainers’ accounts.

That’s a painful stab no matter how you look at it. It’s one thing that the legendary Pokemon are entirely out of our grasps. It’s another to take them away after a player finally has a taste of legendary status. It is understandable, though. It was a goof-up, and there was no easy way to solve it. However, I’m pretty certain that this will only fuel the rage fire if they tie in legendaries to corporate sponsorship later.