There have been several debates between Pokémon Go players regarding when Niantic will launch Dynamax and Gigantamax max raids in the mobile game. The Pokémon Sword and Shield group raiding system has only been hinted at, but players can now find those raid symbols in-game, hinting at an upcoming release.

All Pokémon Go players can find these symbols when searching in their Pokémon collection as of Aug. 5. The symbols were released earlier today in an update to the mobile game. A few weeks ago, developer Niantic released official artwork celebrating the eighth anniversary of Pokémon Go, with a Dynamax Pokémon as the centerpiece. With that artwork and the symbols arriving in the game, we expect the system to launch well before the end of August, potentially during the Pokémon World Championships from Aug. 16 to 18.