Niantic on Pokemon GO – Mega Evolution, level cap increase, plans for 2020 and beyond

Niantic has shared a new interview with Matt Slemon, product lead for Pokemon GO. Slemon was able to discuss some of the features the company has in store for the mobile game.

The first topic discussed is the recently-announced Mega Evolution functionality. Slemon shared the following on that front:

“Yeah, we’re really excited for Mega Evolution. It’s been really important to us as developers and fans of the franchise to get this one right. So it’s something that we’ve been spending time on. One thing I can confirm is that your existing Pokemon today will be the ones that will be Mega Evolved. So the Charizard you got at the very beginning of the game – your first Charmander or the one that you evolved – those are all viable candidates. They can all be Mega Evolved. We’re excited to get that feature out to you and more details soon.”

Next, as for a level cap increase, Slemon stated:

“This has been something that’s been in discussion for a very long time. The right way to do a level cap increase has been a topic of much debate internally. For us the most important piece that we wanted to land was, we don’t want the level cap to increase and then all of a sudden people just sort of get set to their new level and that’s sort of the end of it. We do want the experience to feel a little bit different past level 40 than it has felt up to level 40. So fundamentally getting a level 41 and beyond is still going to require effort. That’s really what levels are intended to display – is how much effort you put into the game. And so that effort economy is still very important to us. But it’s not going to be as simple as grinding XP through the ways that you might be used to. So the experience should be a little bit different, and we’re excited to announce more of that later this year.”

Finally, Slemon shared the following as to what Niantic is planning for this year and beyond:

“There’s a lot of cool stuff that we’re planning to do later this year. There’s many more features, there’ll be more Pokemon, there’ll be more events. We’re really excited to bring a lot of these new things out to players, and we hope you’ll enjoy the experience.”

“We do want Pokemon GO that lasts a really long time, and we think part of that real world appeal is building a game that doesn’t just sort of, you finished the game, you fizzle out, and you feel like the game is done. We really do want Pokemon GO to be a game that sort of feels like it’s persistent, real, evolving just like the real world is. So as we move past 2020, the team’s going to be spending a little bit more time on some of the existing features we have today. We’ve been launching a ton of new features over the last several years, and we want to fight that right balance, so making sure the new stuff’s coming out and the stuff that you already like is getting better. So as we move forward, there’s still a lot to look forward to, and we hope you’ll stick with us on this journey.”

You can watch the full interview with Slemon below.

Pokemon GO is available for mobile on iOS and Android.