John Hanke, the CEO of Pokemon GO developer Niantic Labs recently spoke on stage at the latest TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco. In addition to revealing how he pleaded to Google for help when Niantic’s servers went south due to tens of millions of players trying to catch pocket monsters at the same time, one of the currently best-known names in the mobile games industry also revealed plans for the future of the incredibly popular augmented reality (AR) game. More specifically, Hanke compared Pokemon GO to Ingress, Niantic’s previous mobile game which came out almost five years ago and has been enjoying long-lasting support by the San Francisco studio. He explained how there’s plenty more to come in regards to Pokemon GO content and even went into some details regarding what we can expect to see in the game in the coming weeks, months, and years.
For starters, it was revealed that one of the major features coming to Pokemon GO is a player-versus-player battle system. Hanke said that Niantic is currently trying to figure out how to best implement a PvP mechanic in the game but reassured the audience that one of the most highly demanded features will definitely become a part of Pokemon GO in the near future. In addition to that, developers are currently working on a Pokemon trading system and live event tournaments which thousands of people will be able to participate in. Hanke also said that his team is also constantly working on improving the stability of the game’s servers despite the fact that Niantic didn’t have a lot of issues on that front after the initial launch period in July. However, the studio’s head explained that’s precisely the reason why the Pokemon GO rollout slowed down in recent weeks as Niantic is doing everything it can to not repeat the mistakes made in July.
Last but not least, Hanke revealed that the San Francisco studio is constantly in touch with the Tokyo-based Pokemon Company, adding that “Tokyo is where the game and lore expertise around Pokemon resides” and stating that the two have an excellent working relationship.