“Pokemon Go,” the smash-hit iPhone and Android game that lets you catch ’em all in real life, is only a few days old. But developer Niantic, which spun out of Google/Alphabet in late 2015, is already thinking about what’s next in the weeks and months to come, says CEO John Hanke.
Image: Supplied
All in all, it sounds like Pokemon Go is getting some deeper gameplay mechanics that will encourage players to stick around longer. And for fans of the classic “Pokemon” games, there’s one forthcoming feature that stands above the rest: The ability to trade your hard-collected Pokemon with friends and strangers.
“It’s kind of a core element,” Hanke says.
While he didn’t go into specifics as to how this would work, Hanke says that trading ties in nicely with one of “Pokemon Go’s” core virtues, which is that it encourages players to interact with each other in both the virtual and real worlds. Swapping Pokemon around would foster those kinds of interactions.
The game uses your phone’s camera to make it look like you’re encountering Pokemon in real life. Other new features include more ways to play with Pokéstops and Gyms, the
crucial real-life landmarks where players restock on items, gain experience, and battle each other for control.
Right now, they only exist in their “very most basic versions,” Hanke says, but players will be able to “customise their functions in other ways.” There will also be some kind of global leadership scoreboard for Pokemon players to see who’s the very best, like no one ever was.
Otherwise, Hanke says that there’s going to be improvements to the game’s augmented reality, or AR technology, which uses your phone’s camera to make it look like Pokemon are in your home, on your footpath, or riding your bus. He says that this was a “great first step,” but there’s a lot more they can do.
To that end, Hanke also hints that “Pokemon Go” could be coming to dedicated AR devices — the kinds of wearable gadgets exemplified by the failed Google Glass experiment or the Microsoft HoloLens goggles that project images into your field of view.
“That may be a fun thing to take advantage of,” Hanke teases.
With Microsoft HoloLens inching closer to a formal release, and Google said to be working on a new version of Google Glass, “Pokemon Go” could one day leave your phone and go straight to your eyeballs.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Comments
22 responses to “Pokemon GO Will Get Trading And Leaderboards”
aww yeeee
How’s about stable game first..:
1v1 battle?????????????
What about pokestop submission? Nobody played ingress locally so it’s just a barren deadzone here, despite having stuff that would be a good stop.
They’ve mentioned turning that back on recently, but said that it would be out within 6 months many years ago also.
And now a black market for trading and buying strong pokemon will appear. I’m actually glad this app burned the quality of my phone’s battery enough that I deleted it. I pity no one who will spend money on buying a strong pokemon, and possibly get suckered into getting scammed
Salty.
Not salty, just didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment when I caught a pokemon, and the grind to level them up I felt was annoying. I mean it got me out of the house and walking around in the middle of winter to a few parks nearby but other then that I started getting frustrated at seeing Doduo’s and Zubats while my battery was dying. I can just see now that there is going to a be a market for selling pokemon and without doubt people will get scammed. I can already see the articles coming up on various sites about scams until there is undoubtedly 2 or 3 major websites built as the gumtree of pokemon trade and sell where players can review other players after a transaction
Salty and lazy. can’t have everything handed to ya, mate.
A black market and getting scammed?
Pretty sure if you are going to trade with someone, you’ll both have to be nearby and it’ll ask for confirmation showing all the stats of what you’ll be getting before the trade happens.
Might be the case but after seeing the report of people getting mugged in parks looking for pokemon, I feel like this might increase the chances of attacks if people don’t use common sense
All I see is that people all standing around not talking to each other will now have a reason to chat and trade rare pokemon that they may not have.
Careful guys, you’re all going to get mugged and scammed!
If Niantec make Pokémon Go for the Microsoft Hololense, it’d be lovely if they also made it for the Windows Phone.
All this is really too little too late for me. Pokemon Go is essentially a poorly made fitness app with the flayed carcass of nostalgia to pretty it up. I am quite impressed people have found creative ways to criminalise it so fast, get those people working for Niantec (or whomever makes the game).
You should try Ingress. Much deeper, teamwork pays off, very strategic.
It’s a little bit bullshit, though. There’s nothing you and even one or two mates can do against the awesome power of some asshole who managed to convince the admins to approve their transit-station node at one side of the road and not the other, where they can log in from their bedroom/cubicle every fifteen minutes.
Field over them. Problem solved. It’s a single portal.
Or campfire/pineapple it.
This seems promising. At the moment, the only way to interact with Gyms when you’ve started out is to stare at their unassailable 100x-more-powerful-than-you-newbie-casual-scrub shadow.
And it’s only going to get worse as time goes by. That’s without even mentioning the stupid 1hp bug that stops people from battling properly in the first place
That’s why you play as a group and use type advantages to your favour.
What I’d really like is novelty eggs that can hatch into a Pikachu onesie for my avatar to wear. And some sort of in-game social aspect, and maybe something like WoW’s auction house to trade Pokemon and candy.
And location-based Pokemon from generations other than 1. Travelling or going to a con to be able to trade should be a Big Deal.
And most of all, for the features that are there already to work properly and stop being glitchy as fuq.
I’d be cool with pokemon themed dressups for my avatar.
Sort of hoping they’ve got a version of Ingress’ anomalies in the works. I haven’t seen anyone come across any of the first gen legendary pokemon yet, and the first trailer suggested a big fight against Mewtwo in the future.
Of course, that trailer promised a lot of things.