Niantic wants to give Pokéstops in Pokémon Go more functions

Developer Niantic plans to add more features to the Pokéstops in Pokémon Go. The makers also say that new Pokémon will be added to the game in the “coming months and years”.

Currently, in Pokémon Go, players can only place a so-called lure on a Pokéstop. John Hanke, the founder and CEO of Niantic, says it’s an interesting idea to give players more options to influence the locations with objects. It is not yet clear what functions Pokéstops will have in the future, but the locations could also serve as healing centers, says Hanke. He spoke at Comic-Con about upcoming features for the game. The Verge, among others, reported on his statements.

Hanke also indicates that more different Pokémon are coming to the game. He talks about a time frame of the coming months and years. It is unclear whether an entire new generation of Pokémon will be added immediately, or whether it will be a select few first. At the moment, the mobile game only includes the first generation Pokémon. In total there are six generations with more than seven hundred different figures.

The event was used for the presentation from the team leaders of the three different teams in Pokémon Go. Candela represents Team Valor, Blanche represents Team Mystic, and Spark is the leader of Team Instinct. It is not yet clear exactly what role the team leaders will have in the game. According to Hanke, they will give players ‘advice and assignments’.

Concrete information about when updates for Pokémon Go will be released is not yet known. Niantic says it is now mainly concerned with releasing the game and keeping the servers running. In recent weeks, the release in new countries has regularly been accompanied by server problems. The game was released in Japan last Friday.