Niantic, the developer behind the mobile gaming phenomenon Pokémon Go has revealed its roadmap of updates for the first part of 2022. Niantic said that it wants to focus on three key pillars when providing content to its fans. Those are real-world social interaction, exercise, and exploration. All things that have been at the very core of Pokémon Go since the very beginning.
While Niantic said that these plans are subject to change if there are any unforeseen development hiccups, here’s what’s planned for Pokémon Go in early 2022.
Continuing global events with Pokémon GO Tour: After your enthusiastic response to Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto last year, we’re bringing the next iteration — Pokémon GO Tour: Johto — to Trainers on February 26 and 27, 2022. This year, Trainers around the world will be able to play wherever they are, and Trainers in Monterrey, Mexico, or Kaohsiung, Taiwan, will be able to participate in live events. Some of the new features for this year’s Pokémon GO Tour include GO Gym Trainers—each of which is inspired by a contest-winning Trainer from our community—that you’ll be able to opt in or out of battling once you’ve faced a certain number of them. This way, you’ll be able to choose between engaging in more challenging battles or shifting your focus toward other features of the event. On top of that, there’s new Masterwork Research featuring Apex Shadow Pokémon.
GO Battle League improvements: First of all, we’d like to sincerely thank you all for your support of the GO Battle League! We’re always working on refining the experience, and we’re currently prioritizing a number of updates and improvements—including urgent bug fixes—that we’ll share more about in an upcoming Dev Diary. Stay tuned!
Postcard Update: We’re so happy to see you all enjoying the new Postcard Book feature! We’re working on adding additional functionality, like notifications, sticker saving, an expanded Gift maximum, new Postcard sorting methods, and new Postcard notes!
Seasonal Update: We were happy to see that Trainers enjoyed both Hoopa’s mischief and the mystery of the door Professor Willow discovered. In the coming Season, we’re looking forward to sharing several seasonal Special Research stories with you, with a focus on smaller-scale adventures. Stay tuned for more details on what else we have in store for the next Season!
Community Day Update: The last two years have been hard on us all, and we are continually exploring ways to enhance the sense of community our Trainers feel around the world. Our first ever Community Day Classic was one such experiment, and we’ve also been testing community-hosted events on a smaller scale. We will continue to explore the concept of Community Day to keep our events fresh and exciting.
Niantic
That’s a lot of great stuff for Poké fans to get excited about over the coming months. No dates have been given for when these updates will arrive but expect to see them over the next month or two as this Pokémon Go roadmap only covers the first part of the year. There should be much more to come as 2022 progresses.
