Niantic Confirms Pokémon Trading, PvP Battles Are Still Coming To 'Pokémon Go'

Yesterday, developer Niantic announced major updates that will be arriving for “Pokémon Go” in the coming days and weeks. Unfortunately, Pokémon trading and PvP battles aren’t included in the upcoming updates, but Niantic says that those features are still “on the roadmap.”

“Trading was mentioned in the initial launch trailer of the game, so that is definitely something that we want to get to at some point,” Niantic’s global product marketing lead Archit Bhargava told IGN. “I think the priority has always been, you know, what is the feature that we can launch now that we feel will get the community excited and energized. So we do continue to talk about some of the features that you mentioned, and they are on the roadmap. We just haven’t fully investigated those and talked about how would we want to bring those into ‘Pokémon Go.’ So that is definitely something that we’re focused on.”

Additionally, Bhargava said that December is typically a big planning month for Niantic. The month is usually when the developers start planning for the year ahead and start thinking on how to bring new features to the mobile game. He also said that Pokemon trading and PvP battles are all in active discussion with the “Pokémon Go” development team right now.

Bhargava also confirmed to IGN that Niantic is actively discussing the possibility of making additional changes to “Pokémon GO.” Some of the changes that were mentioned were increasing storage limits and increasing the level cap.

Bhargava went on to discuss why Niantic decided to bring Gen 3 Pokémon to the game. “For now, though, we thought it had been a while since the Pokemon from the Johto region came out, that was in February,” he said. “So we definitely felt the need to bring out the Hoenn region Pokémon, so that became the focus, and dynamic weather came through that. So that’s the focus now and we definitely want to get to those other features very soon.”

In an interview back in September, The Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara said that Niantic was indeed working on adding Pokémon trading and PvP battles to the game. “We’ve only accomplished 10 percent of what Pokémon and Niantic are trying to do, so going forward we will have to include fundamental Pokémon experiences such as Pokémon trading and peer-to-peer battles, and other possibilities,” Ishihara said at the time.

It’s clear that Pokémon trading and PvP battles are on the way, but it does look like “Pokémon Go” players will have to wait a little longer to experience them. For now, Niantic is bringing Gen 3 Pokémon from the Hoenn region. Over 50 new creatures will be part of the game through a series of updates arriving in the coming days and weeks. Some of the Pokémon that have been confirmed so far include Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip.

Niantic is also adding a new dynamic weather system to “Pokémon Go.” The new feature allows the game to adapt to real-life weather conditions. For example, if it’s snowing outside, the in-game map will also display the same type of weather and this increases the chance of catching Ice type Pokémon.