John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic which made the Ingress and Pokémon Go games, revealed future plans for the game at the San Diego Comic Con. Here are all the things headed to the game, although a timeline was not specified.
Servers: Niantic is on the lookout for an exceptionally large potato to upgrade the existing servers that host Pokémon Go. The servers frequently go down for a number of reasons. This includes the game releasing in a new country, when the servers are attacked, or just when people wake up and start playing. Making sure that gamers can play is the first priority for Niantic, and this will be their focus before moving on to anything else.
More countries: Niantic is still in the process of releasing the game across the world. They cannot seem to post anything on Twitter before legions of interested gamers hijack the discussion by demanding that the game be released in their country.
Rare Pokémon: Not all of the 150 Pokémon in the game are caught by trainers, and these will be available after future updates. Other Pokémon not included in the game but that exist in the universe are going to be added too. There are some rare Pokémon that have unique uses, such as Ditto, which may be used to breed with other Pokémon to create eggs. The new Pokémon expected include the Pokémon representing the three teams, Zapdos for team Instinct, Articuno for team Mystic and Moltres for Valor. That these Pokémon represent teams may affect the way they can be acquired in the game.
Pokémon Trading: Trading of Pokémon is not in the game. Users will be able to transfer or
exchange Pokémon in future updates.
Pokéstop customisations: Pokéstops currently drop Pokéballs, and resources to help you catch or heal Pokémon. Pokéstop customisation is a feature that will be added, which allows users to modify the use of Pokéstops. For example, hospitals can be added to the Pokéstops. This will change the way battles are fought because the weakened Pokémon can be healed at Pokémon Centres. Only a tenth of the ideas Niantic had with the game is included in the final release, so there are a number of innovative uses for Pokéstops lined up.
Breeding: Breeding is going to come to the game, and is one of the priorities. Breeding will allow gamers to match up compatible Pokémon, usually of opposite genders to get more Pokémon. Ditto, which is one of the Pokémon in the game can be a part of the breeding mechanism as well.
Bug Fixes: Niantic is working on a fix to prevent gym poaching. Gym poaching occurs when a member of the same team captures a Gym just after someone else has won it from an opposing team. The three step bug, which shows nearby Pokémon as being three steps away even if they are within one or two steps is also being fixed.
#PokemonGO Team Leaders revealed! Team Valor: Candela. Team Mystic: Blanche. Team Instinct: Spark. pic.twitter.com/j05H5K0tfY— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 24, 2016
Team Leaders: The team leaders were revealed. Valor is led by Candela, Mystic by Blanche, and Instinct by Spark. Spark’s smile, fashion sense and pose seem like he is trying a little too hard, but what do you think?
Those are all the updates headed to Pokémon Go. The updates may take months or years to be rolled out. Comicbook.com has a live blog of Hanke’s session. Hanke got to present at Hall H, which is usually reserved for high profile announcements from major studios, reports Venture Beat.
