Pokémon Go Boss Says New Pokémon Coming Via Special Events

[Maura]

Niantic CEO John Hanke has been talking at length about the company’s plans for Pokémon Go at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco yesterday. Hanke told TechCrunch that once the game has finally launched in all the territories possible worldwide, the company’s focus will then turn to special events, which will include the release of new Pokémon, something that fans have been clamouring for, especially Legendary Pokémon. Hanke also confirmed that fans can expect another much hoped for feature, player vs. player battles, at some point in the future.

“I have a 10-year-old son—he’s my Pokémon expert, we play together—he wants to battle his friends in Pokémon Go,” said Hanke. “Battling is something we talk a lot about. It’s probably something that will make its way onto our roadmap.”

Hanke also said that Niantic had even been talking about Pokémon trading, another feature high on fans’ wishlists, but didn’t elaborate any further on that.

And unfortunately for Pokémon Go’s critics, Hanke said that Niantic is in it for the long haul and the game is still going strong. After all, it is still the number 1 grossing app in the App Store, ahead of Spotify. Hanke said that Niantic has big plans for the game.

“A lot of what we’re doing with Pokémon, we learned through 3 years of hard work with Ingress and building up that community around the world, maturing that technology, the social aspect of it, the group gameplay, and the events for Ingress are really the lifeblood of that game. I think you can expect to see things like that in Pokémon Go.”

Finally, iDigitalTimes reports that Hanke also solved another Pokémon Go mystery during his TechCrunch interview, stating that Ditto is indeed in the game, and reassuring players that “you will find” it. Currently no one has been able to find Ditto anywhere, so maybe Hanke could give us all a hint?!

Sources: Pokémon Go will “likely” come to Android Wear

'Pokemon Go' CEO Talks About Future Events, Other Generations Of Pokemon, Ditto And More