Player-to-player trading is coming to Pokemon Go via a future update, according to developer Niantic.
Outlining the game’s seemingly bright future in an interview with Game Informer, Studio Founder John Hanke spoke about how Niantic has harnessed its own experience on Ingress – a location-based science fiction title – in the creation of Pokemon Go.
“Ingress is also a game based around locations. Ingress is a sci-fi game, the locations are puzzles in Ingress, players can control portals to power them up, to link them together, to form fields, or two teams. These portals–when we started that project with Google–we seeded that database of global locations, with historical markers, and a database of public artwork, and statues.”
Though it’s undoubtedly hit the ground running, pulling in an estimated $14 million since launch, Niantic acknowledges that there’s still plenty of room for improvement, beginning with the addition of player-to-player trading. It’ll come “fairly soon” to iOS and Android, with Hanke stating that Pokemon Go “is an MMO, so it is something we’re committed to regular updates and that. There will be new clients and server iterations pushed bi-weekly.”
“You can add things like a lure to a PokeStop today that sort of modifies the PokeStop and causes it to attract more Pokémon it,” he said. “There is some thinking about how to further modify and evolve PokeStops and gyms. Players will be able to shape them and add functionality to them by working collaboratively together, so that’s an area that we’ll be spending quite a bit of effort over the coming weeks and months on.”
Pokemon Go is available to download now in select countries around the globe, and will expand internationally once Niantic irons out those server niggles.