‘Pokémon GO’: Future Looks Bright For World’s Most Popular App


The world continues to be enamored by The Pokémon Company and Niantic’s mind-blowingly successful app, Pokémon GO. Future updates only look to strengthen the fact that GO has a long life ahead of it. Just last week at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), Niantic reported that the current iteration of Pokémon GO only represents about 10 percent of where they want the app to be, as reported by Droid Life. That percentage is most likely less after today’s Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon announcement.

During the Pokémon SDCC Panel, the creators gave an idea of what they expected the Pokémon GO future to consist of. Not all of Generation 1 Pokemon have been caught, yet. The Legendary Pokemon, Mew, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, still plan to figure into some major event that will take place in the near future. Mewtwo, the subject in the Time Square ad, has still yet to find its way into the game, either, along with a surprisingly basic character of Ditto.

If that is the last of the Pokémon the average person expect to see out there, then they are sorely mistaken. With the release of the Pokémon GO Plus accessory put off until November, some are speculating that the next region or generation of Pokémon might see a release at that time. It seems understandable. By November, it would be logical to give trainers a reason to go looking for the next round of Pokémon.

With Generation 2 of Pokémon, players will be able to hunt down starters Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile. This generation saw the addition of Dark and Steel types of Pokemon, as well. At the moment, types haven’t played an overly important role in Pokémon GO. Future updates could change that.

Looking even further out, one could expect the entire lineup of Pokémon to slowly make their way into the game. A complete list of Pokémon by generations can easily be found by searching, but Bulbapedia has put together a list complete with sprite-based pictures of each form. Today, that list got just a little longer with the additional Pokémon announced for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon.

The Pokémon Company released a good deal of information concerning the Alola Region Pokémon that will make up Generation 7. With the introduction of these Alola-adapted Pokémon, as well as the starters and legendaries, 43 new forms of Pokemon have been added. On August 12, more announcements are expected for Sun and Moon. Rumors suggest that we could be seeing the evolved forms of the starters, Rowlet, Poppilo, and Litten.

Image via NeoGAF

Also in today’s announcement, a new form attack called Z-Moves was announced. There is no indication that this is something that might be added to future versions of Pokémon GO, but with the attacks success dependent on the relationship in battle between the trainer and the Pokémon, this could add an interesting element to GO.

Image via The Pokémon Company

In the SDCC panel, Niantic also talked about other changes that could be coming to Pokémon GO. Future updates might institute trading. Pokémon trading has been a staple to all Pokémon games in the past, including the video game and the trading card game. PokéCenters could be taken into consideration, as well, especially if a more detailed battle system is in future versions.

With a list of Pokémon that could reach over a thousand after the introduction of Generation 7, it is easy to see why Niantic would make the statement that Pokémon GO is only about 10 percent of where they want it to be currently. It is hard to imagine that anyone could forecast the success of Pokémon GO. However, the future at this point looks bright for years to come.

[Image via The Pokémon Company]

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