The year of 2017 is now behind us. We now live in the world of 2018, and a whole new list of possibilities for Pokémon GO comes with that! In this article, we'll be exploring what we expect to be added to the game in 2018.
REMAINDER OF GEN. 3: We had to start with the obvious one. The remainder of Generation 3 will certainly be the first new addition of 2018. We expect the entire roster, excluding a few special cases and Mythical Pokémon.
NEW RAID BOSSES: New Raid Bosses are almost required for 2018. We need diversity in the Raid system, and some more meta-oriented Raid Bosses. This obviously includes new Legendary Raid Bosses, as we have seen Kyogre already teased at the start of the 2017 Holiday Event.
GENERATION 4: We don't even have the entirety of Generation 3 yet, but we're already expecting Generation 4 in this new year. We don't expect it to start rolling out until early fall, but we are going to need more than one generation in a year. And, giving that a large portion of Gen. 4 is new evolutions, it will certainly not be too much of a hassle for Niantic to add.
BREEDING: Generation 4 is the first time we saw gender-specific evolutions. Only female Combee evolve into Vespiquen, only male Kirlia evolve into Gallade, and only female Snorunt evolve into Froslass. With gender about to mean something beyond the occasional physical variation, it will be the perfect time to introduce the ability to breed.
BATTLE-SYSTEM UPDATE: We've been stuck with the same, basic battle system for a year and a half now. Weather has brought some more depth to the Gym system in Pokémon GO, but it still has so much more potential (especially when you look at the main-series games).
It also seems that Niantic has been setting the most preliminary of hidden groundwork for this, so it seems more likely. This doesn't necessarily mean we'll see player-versus-player battles, but it would be a welcome addition.
OTHER BRANCHES: Finally, we'll look at the other wings of the Pokémon franchise. The main-series games are scheduled to get a new set of mainline games on the Nintendo Switch. These are expected to be Generation 8, or possibly a remake of Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, and / or Pokémon Platinum.
As far as spin-off games go, Pokémon Duel will certainly get more new figures, especially Mega Evolutions and Shiny variants. It could also get the ability for Trainers to perform Z-Moves. It's already known that Pokémon Crystal will be relaunching on the Virtual Console. In addition, we could see another spin-off game (think Pokkén Tournament).
Thanks for reading, Trainers! We think that these are the most realistic additions coming to Pokémon GO in 2018. These are the things we'd really hope to see, and hope they're on Niantic's 2018 roadmap.
REMAINDER OF GEN. 3: We had to start with the obvious one. The remainder of Generation 3 will certainly be the first new addition of 2018. We expect the entire roster, excluding a few special cases and Mythical Pokémon.
NEW RAID BOSSES: New Raid Bosses are almost required for 2018. We need diversity in the Raid system, and some more meta-oriented Raid Bosses. This obviously includes new Legendary Raid Bosses, as we have seen Kyogre already teased at the start of the 2017 Holiday Event.
GENERATION 4: We don't even have the entirety of Generation 3 yet, but we're already expecting Generation 4 in this new year. We don't expect it to start rolling out until early fall, but we are going to need more than one generation in a year. And, giving that a large portion of Gen. 4 is new evolutions, it will certainly not be too much of a hassle for Niantic to add.
BREEDING: Generation 4 is the first time we saw gender-specific evolutions. Only female Combee evolve into Vespiquen, only male Kirlia evolve into Gallade, and only female Snorunt evolve into Froslass. With gender about to mean something beyond the occasional physical variation, it will be the perfect time to introduce the ability to breed.
BATTLE-SYSTEM UPDATE: We've been stuck with the same, basic battle system for a year and a half now. Weather has brought some more depth to the Gym system in Pokémon GO, but it still has so much more potential (especially when you look at the main-series games).
It also seems that Niantic has been setting the most preliminary of hidden groundwork for this, so it seems more likely. This doesn't necessarily mean we'll see player-versus-player battles, but it would be a welcome addition.
OTHER BRANCHES: Finally, we'll look at the other wings of the Pokémon franchise. The main-series games are scheduled to get a new set of mainline games on the Nintendo Switch. These are expected to be Generation 8, or possibly a remake of Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, and / or Pokémon Platinum.
As far as spin-off games go, Pokémon Duel will certainly get more new figures, especially Mega Evolutions and Shiny variants. It could also get the ability for Trainers to perform Z-Moves. It's already known that Pokémon Crystal will be relaunching on the Virtual Console. In addition, we could see another spin-off game (think Pokkén Tournament).
Thanks for reading, Trainers! We think that these are the most realistic additions coming to Pokémon GO in 2018. These are the things we'd really hope to see, and hope they're on Niantic's 2018 roadmap.