Pokemon Go is now available on iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)
Niantic Labs, the studio behind Pokemon Go, has said that they do not necessarily consider their game to be a finished product. Rather, it’s an ever-evolving experience that will continued to be tweaked and improved over time. The app is already quite different than it was when it launched almost two months ago. So what is Niantic’s update schedule like? When can we expect the next one?
In general, Niantic has lately been aiming to put out an update every two weeks. Therefore, you should expect the next patch to be released no later than Monday, September 5th.
In the past, Pokemon Go updates have often come even sooner than that, but no more than two weeks have passed so far without some sort of patch to the game. Here is a brief rundown of the major updates released so far and what each one did. There have been a few more minor ones in between, but these are all of the game’s significant overhauls:
- July 6th: Game launches in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States
- July 13th: Login issues fixed; Crashing problems resolved
- July 20th: Minor text fixes
- July 30th: Footprints removed; Battle damage altered; Avatars made customizable
- August 8th: Battery saver mode fixed; Nicknames can now be changed once; XP bonus glitch resolved; New “sightings” feature
- August 23rd: Appraisal feature added; 1HP glitch fixed
As you can see, back when the game first launched, Niantic was releasing an update about once a week. But as they moved into August, they seem to have transitioned into a bi-weekly schedule. This actually was the initial goal, as back in July, Niantic CEO John Hanke told users to expect an update every two weeks, according to Polygon. But the game experienced so many issues in its first month that the company probably felt they needed to get these patches out sooner than originally planned.
So what should we expect from future updates? The main thing we know is coming soon is a trading feature. John Hanke told Business Insider that trading is coming to Pokemon Go soon, and he considers this to be a staple of the Pokemon franchise. He added that other classic Pokemon features would be on their way.
Many players are also hoping for an update to the nearby tracker. The ability to see how far away certain Pokemon are with a footsteps icon was a feature present in the original version of the game, but it quickly broke and had to be removed. For now, it has been replaced with a sightings feature, but even at the time, Niantic referred to this as a “variation” of the tracker, and it was unclear whether this was a temporary fix or if it was here to stay.
Finally, some rare Pokemon will be coming to the game, presumably including Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos.
“There are some rare ones that haven’t showed up yet that will be showing up,” John Hanke said at Comic Con.