John Hanke talks about the most requested features in 'Pokemon GO'

John Hanke, the Niantic CEO, recently announced some details regarding the most requested features for “Pokemon GO.” In an interview with the Taiwanese magazine “Business Weekly,” John Hanke stated that a new battle mode might arrive next year. The battle mode is suspected to be the Player-Versus-Player feature, which has been around the rumor mill since 2016. John Hanke also said that the “Pokemon GO” team is currently developing a new feature to increase player’s social interaction.

New Communication feature

High-level Legendary Raid Battles requires several players to beat, which is why the developer is looking for a way to improve the coordination within local communities.

Niantic is also creating a feature to help players located in rural areas where there are only a few PokeStops and PokeGyms. “Pokemon GO” really needs an internal mechanism to help players communicate and alert each other for pending raids and quests.

Gen 3 creatures

John Hanke claims that there are many Pokemon that have not yet been released. The CEO is talking about the third generation Pokemon. According to a report by PokemonGoHub, the generation 3 Pokemon is a group of 135 creatures first seen in “Pokemon Ruby” and “Pokemon Sapphire.” A few months ago, some players found the names of the third generation creatures in the game’s APK file. This means that fans can expect the Gen-3 Pokemon to arrive in the near future, possibly along with the Halloween event.

‘Pokemon GO’ AR contest

In other “Pokemon GO” news, Niantic recently announced the first official “Pokemon GO” Augmented Reality contest. According to a report by Touch Arcade, the rewards for the contest includes a Pokemon GO Plus device, unspecified wireless Bluetooth earbuds, and a poster autographed by the Niantic team. The contest will run until October 25, and it will take place on Instagram.

How does the AR contest work?

“Pokemon GO” players are asked to capture photos with their favorite Pokemon in the best location they can find. Player can upload the photos on Instagram with the hashtag #PokemonGOcontest. Niantic already recorded 7,819 submissions. Each photo will be judged by three different criteria, first is the originality of photo, second is the creativity of photo, and the third is the visual fun of photo.

Each “Pokemon GO” player can only submit three photos in every Instagram account. Players cannot use a second Instagram account to upload more photos, but it is still unsure how would Niantic know if a player is using a dummy account.