Three Reasons To Play ‘Pokémon Go’ Again; New Trading Feature, Legendary Pokémon, Revamped Gym Battle System Coming

Niantic revealed exciting new things are coming to "Pokémon Go" this year starting with last month's announcement on a new trading feature. Moreover, Niantic CEO John Hanke revealed that Legendary Pokémons to be caught in mobile is a top priority as well as a reworked gym with a more competitive system.

Launched last year, the "Pokémon Go" took the mobile gaming market by storm with adorable little creatures popping in a user's camera. Niantic is also responsible for popularizing Augmented Reality (AR), which is a technology that overlays graphics into the real world. However, the buzz soon died down and players' interest waned, which is why Niantic have launched several global events to capture dedicated players once again. However, it looks like there will be more requested features to be introduced into the game this year as revealed by Hanke last Thursday during the SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin.

Just last month, Niantic has already conceded to players' demands and announced a new feature for players to trade Pokémon with other players. The feature is currently in the works and will soon arrive in the "Pokémon Go" game. Another requested feature is to have a better system of battling Pokémon other than the existing gym battle where trainers and their Pokemon battle a designated player. Even Hanke himself in an interview with the German edition of the Wired believes that the current gym battle needs some tweaking and this new feature is set to also come this year.

Moreover, the arrival of legendary Pokémons in "Pokémon Go" has been highly anticipated and even figured in a recent controversy where a player claimed to have caught an Articuno. The said legendary Pokémon is still not available in the wild and Niantic rolled it out to some players by accident. Hanke also revealed that catching a legendary Pokémon in mobile is already a top priority of Niantic. So far, Hanke revealed five names including two rare ones like Mewtwo and Mew and three legendary birds like Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno according to Polygon.

Furthermore, Niantic reveals its two-pronged goals starting with bringing cultural and historical awareness as it features important landmarks that may easily go unnoticed, CNet reported. The other is to enable a technology that keeps people walking and encourage young people to go outdoors. As to the second goal, "Pokémon Go" has already achieved a lot that it was even sanctioned by the local government of Milwaukee to ask for a permit to use its parks as Pokéstops.