Pokemon GO Trading and PvP Battles Coming 'Soon'
By Jasmine Henry 15 February 2017
Pokemon GO will add trading and PvP battles ‘soon’ according to Niantic CEO John Hanke who blames the games server issues at launch for the delay of the features.
Ever singe the augmented reality game launched last summer, Pokemon GO players have been vocal about their most wanted features. Specifically, fans are eager for Pokemon GO to add Pokemon trading and they would also like the massively popular mobile title to introduce PvP battles. In fact, players are so desperate for these two gameplay features being added to the game that one YouTuber even created their own video showing off how Pokemon GO trading might work.
Thankfully for the many Pokemon GO fans calling for the features to be added, they may not have much longer to wait until trading and PvP battles become available. John Hanke, the CEO of Pokemon GO developer Niantic, tells Waypoint in an interview that the features are “going to be done soon.” The executive says that, “I’ll take the massive wave of hysteria we enjoyed, and just deal with the fact that it’s caused us to take a bit longer to get the rest of the features up.” Hanke also reveals that the team is “really happy to make our users happy.”
Understandably, some will be doubtful that those features will really be added soon. Seven months ago Hanke promised that Pokemon GO would add trading in a future update and so fans have been waiting a very long time for the features to be released or even for a substantial update on the progress of the development. However, the Niantic CEO blames the lack of these features on Pokemon GO‘s server issues, saying that if there had not been difficulties at launch, trading or PvP battles would be available by now.
With server issues mostly out of the way and with most of the issues faced by the game being legal rather than technical (take Pokemon GO‘s need for a permit in some places as an example), soon may really mean soon. Also during the interview, Hanke notes that the company plans to do more to keep players engaged and introducing PvP battles and trading would be one way to do it.
Moreover, while celebrations such as the Pokemon GO‘s holiday events and rumors about new Gen 2 Pokemon being added to the game have tided fans over, recently many have complained about a dearth of new content. Two new gameplay features could certainly keep Pokemon GO players occupied for a while though, so hopefully Niantic keeps to its words and releases an update in a reasonable time frame.
