Pokemon GO Down Time: Here's When It'll Be Back

Pokemon GO has a planned down-time for maintenance starting today at 1PM Central Time. This game will be offline for approximately 7 hours. Per Niantic, this time will be dedicated to "server maintenance." The game will be "inaccessible to all Trainers" during this time – so don't worry about losing your spot in your favorite local Pokemon Gym – you'll be there when the game comes back.

As this is just about the hottest day of the year in North America so far here in the year 2020, this down-time might not have come at a better time. Can't play Pokemon GO in the pool, after all. Niantic's made plenty of accommodations for social distancing over the past few weeks and months, too, making the game far more "play anywhere" than it was "get up and walk around the world" in the past.

If you're following the game's weekly box rewards, you'll need to claim your Shinx BEFORE the game's scheduled maintenance. After maintenance is done, the weekly reward will change to Trapinch. The change happens at 1PM PDT – right in the middle of scheduled maintenance.

We do not have reason to suspect that anything unpleasant will happen during scheduled maintenance in Pokemon GO. However, if you've never taken screenshots of your Pokemon collection and item bag before now, now might be a good time to do so. There's not really been a scheduled down-time event like this before, so you might as well take the precaution of proof that you had what you had before the event, just in case sometime happens to your account when the game comes back up.

Pokemon GO is down today as The Pokemon Company releases and/or reveals several other updates and/or new products for sale in the near future. Take a peek at the timeline below for more information on the new Pokemon TCG "board game" and the newest update to Pokemon Sword & Pokemon Shield!