Niantic explains the future of Pokémon GO

Niantic Labs' CEO John Hanke took to the stage at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to talk about how plans have shifted from the game's inception to the present, giving us a few hints at what's to come in the process.

According to the dedicated Pokémon Champions over at The Silph Road, Hanke mentioned that the latest big Generation II update was the first "major" update for the game. Three more of a similar size are coming to the game in 2017.

Hanke recently told Waypoint in an interview that Niantic planned to add many new services to the game, including Pokémon trading and player vs. player battles. While we can't say for sure these features will be included in the updates Hanke discussed, it's likely we'll see them sooner rather than later given the amount of player demand.

The folks over on Reddit speculate that these updates could appear every three months, centered around major in-game events. That means we could be seeing a new big patch in May, though that is, of course, guesswork.

Still, it's exciting to hear that Niantic has big plans for Pokémon GO, with support for the game continuing into the next few years as the team works to iron out some of the kinks that first plagued the game.

Do you believe that the future of Pokémon GO is bright? Share your thoughts in the comments!