Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs has shared an update on the game’s much anticipated trading feature. Product manager Tatsuo Nomura told Polygon that trading will not be done through the internet. Players will need to be physically close to trade Pokemon, although a specific distance has not been revealed. Trading has not even been officially announced for the game yet.
“You shouldn’t be able to exchange your Pokemon with someone who is 100 miles away from you. …The person needs to be in your proximity,” Nomura explained. “We don’t want to just have that be an online game that you can just exchange virtually,”
Trading is a huge part of the Pokemon games, in the video games and through the card game. It seems that the studio is going to be taking its time with this feature before it debuts in Pokemon Go.
“We’re still trying to come up with an answer [to trading] that makes sense so it doesn’t kill the game,” Nomura said, adding that the feature is penciled in for 2017. “If we fail this, we can easily kill the game.”
