Niantic Labs managed to hit a jackpot of success with Pokemon Go. The game is a runaway hit across mobile devices the world around. So what might be next for Pokemon Go as it continues to expand to new regions and the developers add on to the play experience? Well, there's a lot.
In an interview with Forbes, Niantic Labs' CEO John Hanke explained what they have planned for Pokemon Go and how they plan on improving the game for the future, saying...
Well there are a number of threads that you will start to see. You will see new Pokémon come into the game around special events at certain times in certain parts of the world. You'll see us do some things around events...There are a lot of self-organizing events that are happening and maybe we just support those. There are some things that we do in game with the gameplay to make the events more interesting...We have achievements in Pokémon. So we could have medals around events in Pokémon. I'm not sure yet.
The achievements sound interesting. A lot of people have been curious about the team gym battles and the player-vs-player content. According to Hanke the main hold-up for this content not arriving is the fact that they have to sort out the cheating. He doesn't specify exactly what sort of cheating is inhibiting the implementation of the team gym battles, but he does note that the third-party Pokemon Go radar apps are a bit of a problem because they take away from the discovery of finding Pokemon organically or coming across gyms and PokeStops by exploring the surrounding areas.
Hanke is cautious not to give too much away in regards to what they have planned for the future of Pokemon Go. A lot of their focus has been on server stability following a recent launch in Pokemon's hometown of Japan.
Game Informer took on the painstaking task of listing some of the 100 pocket monsters from Pokemon Silver and Gold that might become a part of the game at some point. This includes rare Shiny Pokemon as well as fan-favorites like Chikorita, Espeon and Lugia. Of course, there's no way to know for sure which Pokemon they'll be adding next or whether they'll all come in one giant update or roll out slowly over time.
There's a lot of material and plenty of history for Niantic Labs to dabble into from the Pokemon franchise, and they're likely going to take their time in getting it all out while also maintaining that fine balancing act of keeping the servers stable. The medals seem like they would be the more likely feature to make the cut before any new Pokemon arrive. Also, it would give gamers a lot more to look forward to when partaking in special events or looking to one-up the competition by elevating their trainer to the next level.
In the meantime, Niantic Labs is continuing to upgrade and release Pokemon Go in various regions while they slowly add in more accessibility and playability features. It's just a matter of playing the waiting game for said features to arrive.
