‘Pokémon GO’ Dev Teases Hidden Secrets As Disabled Features Become Evident At High-Speed Transportation

Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke is back at it again. The “Pokémon GO” developer has once again teased fans on what they should be watching out for, but he isn’t giving hints. He did say, however, that something will play out in the course of the next few weeks.

GamesRadar reported that Hanke confirmed last week that Niantic is constantly adding hidden secrets into the famous mobile gaming app. “There will always be secrets in the game that no one has found because we’re always adding new secrets to the game," Hanke was quoted as saying by the gaming site.

Making the juicy bit even more exciting, Hanke teased that one hidden secret is already present in the game right now and it will play out in the course of a few weeks. "There’s one out there right now and we’ll see how that plays out over the course of the next few weeks,” he said.

Unfortunately for Trainers, the CEO of Niantic is not willing to spill the beans on what they should be looking for. “I am not giving you any clues,” Hanke said when asked if the hidden secret was launched with the Halloween update.

It is somehow impossible for the hidden secret to be part of the Halloween update, since that one launched at the end of October and lasted only for several days before ending on Nov. 1. GameSpot is pointing toward the more recent update with the daily catch bonuses because techie players who mined the update found codes for Gen II Pokémon — all 100 of them. Could this be the secret Hanke was teasing?

Meanwhile, another in-game promotion was launched recently. The promo comes with changes on the number of Pokémon that are spawning in certain places. Pokéstops have also been enhanced to give away more items. These changes can help guarantee that players will catch more Pokémon easily. However, the promotion is only running until Nov. 11.

The limited-time promotion really sounds great for Trainers who have yet to catch more than half of the Gen I Pokémon in the Pokédex. Unfortunately, Niantic has also disabled some features to ensure that players won’t go on driving around like crazy to quickly fill their bags with items and Poké Balls.

According to Forbes, Niantic has tweaked “Pokémon GO” to make the game non-operational when one is moving at high speeds. Thus, Trainers who intend to catch Pokémon and collect items while biking, driving or riding are very unlikely to realize their goal. Not only that, distance calculation for hatching eggs and the Sightings feature have also been tweaked to be non-functional at certain speeds.

Forbes gave credit to Niantic for ensuring the safety of “Pokémon GO” players through these changes, but it also pointed out that the developer failed to talk to fans about these changes, leaving the latter to wonder and guess. When asked for comment, however, Niantic did confirm one of the changes, saying: “We are always looking for ways to improve our products. Among other updates such as daily bonuses, this week we made an adjustment in Pokémon GO that makes Pokéstops inaccessible when a player is at driving speed. We want to once again thank our loyal players for their continued support.”