A trading feature and PvP are still goals for Pokémon GO. Niantic CEO John Hanke in an interview.
Many trainers in the Pokémon GO community are waiting for the announced PvP and trading features of the augmented reality game. Niantic mentioned these features several months ago but has not been able to complete them so far.
In an interview, Niantic’s CEO John Hanke explained that these features have not been forgotten. However, Pokémon GO is currently about 6 months behind the original schedule.
John Hanke on the first year of Pokémon GO
In an interview with TheVerge, Hanke talks about the first year of the popular mobile game, where you can catch little monsters in your surroundings. As has been frequently mentioned in other interviews, the hype at the launch of the game was a shock for the developers. They expected many players but not so many.
This surprising success forced the team to restructure the development plan and rebuild the infrastructure. These measures were important but cost a lot of time. Therefore, Pokémon GO is currently approximately six months behind the original schedule.
PvP and trading feature are still on the agenda!
Because the work on the new infrastructure suddenly became so important, other features were pushed further into the future. Niantic already spoke about player versus player battles, where trainers can compete against each other, in the first months of Pokémon GO. A trading feature allowing you to trade your caught monsters with other players is supposed to be included as well. But when? In the community, trainers regularly point out that they are still waiting for the promised features.
Hanke stated that PvP battles and a trading feature have been postponed but are still on the agenda. The player versus player battles were supposed to be already implemented in the game.
If Niantic had a significantly larger team at the launch of the game, these features would likely have been active in the game by now. However, no one expected such a hype that attracted millions of players, so they had to invest a lot of time into the infrastructure of Pokémon GO.
Cheats – Active work is being done on this
Experiences with cheaters were already made by the Niantic team with their Ingress app. It was clear that some players would “spoofer” and try to circumvent the actual rules of the game. That some companies are now making money leveling other accounts and that cheating is becoming “so” rampant was not expected.
It is difficult to make Pokémon GO “fair” for all players, says Hanke. Developers who could have been working on designing new features are now battling the cheaters in Pokémon GO.
Our thoughts on the interview, trading, and PvP
The interview with TheVerge provides details on why the current situation of Pokémon GO is what it is. Just recently, we received the arena overhaul (which according to Hanke is the best update for Pokémon GO). This and other features were supposed to be active in the game much earlier, but were delayed due to problems.
It is nice to hear that PvP battles and the trading feature are still on the developers’ radar and are not being ignored. This raises hope that we might see these features soon.
We look forward to the announced features and are excited to see how Niantic will implement them.
The raid battles with legendary Pokémon are already being tested
