The Biggest Pokemon GO Update Since The Beginning

This summer the biggest Pokemon GO update since the Gen 2 event will be unveiled. This update will be one of several that'll be released through the end of the year, each of them designed to bring old and new players to the game and engage them in a way that wasn't possible before. In addition to releasing new Pokemon, Niantic's plans for the future include a new way to battle in Pokemon Gyms and the long-awaited Pokemon Trading system present in each other main-line Pokemon game for Nintendo devices.

The Pokemon Gym was launched with Pokemon GO as a sort of placeholder. As Niantic has said and as we're to understand, the Pokemon Gym battle system was never meant to be what it is today forever. It's got some big changes in the works – perhaps the most important being team mechanics. This will be the centerpiece of a massive update that'll take place this summer – or in the Fall, at latest.

With multiple users fighting a gym at the same time, engagement on both sides of the equation will become more exciting. As it stands now, not a whole lot of effort is put into Gym Battles by the players. Especially when they have access to Impenetrable Walls like Blissey. We've got entire articles dedicated to beating Blissey, the broken Pokemon – that won't last forever.

While we're still massively skeptical about Pokemon trading in this game, it's still (apparently) in the works. It'll be a real trick releasing this functionality into the game without breaking it. More than one massive online game has been destroyed by trading and/or other forms of in-game interaction with currency involved.

Take Diablo III, for example – they launched with the idea that they'd have a real-money market system for all players. It seemed reasonable, as people already bought and sold items in previous games VIA eBay. But the idea of the shop and the reality of the situation did not pan out. It might make more sense for Niantic to leave well enough alone and leave attaining Pokemon to the capture method.

Generally we don't publish rumors as wacky as this one, but this one rings a harsh bell. Take this possibility with a giant grain of salt, as we've never worked with the source we're getting this news from before. They could just as easily be a wild maniac as they could be trustworthy. That said and understood, the rumor has to do with a Nintendo Phone.

This anonymous and probably institutionalized tipster suggests that while Pokemon Trading will come to Pokemon GO, it'll require a Nintendo Phone. While we have discussed a Nintendo Phone before, never before have we heard that it'll be required to execute certain functions in a game. Of course previous Pokemon games required a certain piece of hardware to trade... but so did the games themselves. I can't imagine using a special cable – like was required for the GameBoy to trade – would be functionally appropriate here in the present.

While there are some potentially game-changing details in the rumor mill right this moment, most are the sort that we're going to have to vet out a bit more. The Nintendo Phone item above was over the top – so wild there really wasn't anything to consider. With the other bits that are coming, it's a bit more important to get more detail before we go live.

Have a peek at our @TeamPokemonGO Twitter portal for more Pokemon GO tips, secret bits, and future updates. This is the summer of our mega-content. It's time to change the game once again – for the millions of Pokemon fans playing hard since day one.