Niantic Teases 'Next 10 Years' of Pokemon GO

gamerant.com:

Niantic is already thinking about the next decade of Pokemon GO, a senior company official has revealed. The executive also suggested that the recent Pokemon GO updates are just the beginning of what the studio has in store for the game in the run-up to its tenth anniversary.

Niantic's seminal geolocation game quickly took the world by storm following its July 2016 release. And while its gameplay loop focused on real-world exploration may not seem inherently compatible with lockdowns, the global pandemic has actually Pokemon GO's revenue to new heights, possibly because Niantic was quick to adapt to it by providing fans with ways to continue pursuing the quest to catch 'em all without moving too much.

Four years later, the hit mobile game is now approaching its ninth anniversary, but the California-based developer is already thinking about its second decade. That's according to Ed Wu, Niantic Senior Vice President of Pokemon GO, who said as much in a recent interview with Eurogamer. Reflecting on the current state of affairs, the executive who helped build out the game's codebase from its earliest days revealed that the recent updates aimed at revamping select aspects of Pokemon GO are just the beginning of the developer's latest efforts to solidify the game's long-term potential.

«We're putting a lot of investment into ensuring it's a great game and has really firm foundations for the next ten years,» he explained. On that note, Wu revealed that Niantic is already thinking about the game's tenth anniversary and is aiming to meet it with «a refresh that's befitting that next decade.» The biome background makeovers that are currently in testing are part of those modernization efforts, as is the much more polarizing revamp of the Pokemon GO avatar system.

We're putting a lot of investment into ensuring it's a great game and has really firm foundations for the next ten years.

Going back to the game's present, Wu asserted that he «can confidently say the game is growing»