Pokemon GO is doing better than ever. After a rocky launch, the game has seen an increase in player engagement as well as consistent revenue. It also helped inspire one of Switch’s first Pokemon entries, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee.

Speaking with Business Insider, Niantic CEO John Hanke noted that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are very pleased with Pokemon GO as well as Pokemon: Let’s Go. Apparently the two sides are looking for more “synergies” between the mobile release and the core franchise. “We’ve benefited in a lot of ways,” Hanke said.

In 2018, Pokemon GO managed to receive a “regular pace of updates.” Hanke mentioned that this will continue in 2019.

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Niantic CEO says Pokemon GO is “thriving”, talks thinking behind new features

Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

At Pokemon GO Fest in Chicago, The Guardian was able to speak with Niantic CEO John Hanke. Hanke discussed the current status of the game, among other topics.

Reflecting on how far Pokemon GO has come since its launch two years ago, Hanke said that the mobile title has a “thriving, strong user base of people that are not here for the fad, but because they love the core values of the game.” He said:

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Niantic CEO reflects on Pokemon GO Fest 2017’s issues and how the company will avoid similar problems this year

Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

Pokemon GO Fest did not go well for Niantic last year. Due to technical issues, many of the events that had been planned couldn’t take place or were severely impacted. Many players who stopped by couldn’t even log in due to an abundance of traffic and other problems.

Despite Pokemon GO Fest not going over well in 2017, Niantic is trying things again this year. The company announced earlier today that the big event is returning to Chicago in July. Following the news, IGN caught up with Niantic CEO John Hanke, who reflected on all of the problems that occurred last year and how the company has learned from its mistakes.

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Niantic CEO says Gen IV, PvP, increased level cap, and more coming to Pokemon GO

Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

It’s unclear how it happened (other than what was probably just a happy circumstance), but Niantic CEO John Hanke ended up on a flight with Pokemon GO player Doctor PoGo. The two ended up sitting next to each other and Hanke dished on the mobile game’s future.

Here’s a roundup of information shared about what’s planned for Pokemon GO:

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Niantic CEO explains Pokemon GO Fest tech issues, Moltres and Zapdos distributions dated

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 9 Comments

The inaugural Pokemon GO Fest did not go well. Among the various issues were technical problems, which made it impossible for many attendees to play the game and participate in events for most of the day.

Over on the Niantic blog, CEO John Hanke commented on the situation in detail. Hanke ultimately said that technical issues “caused client crashes and interfered with gameplay for some users.” Hanke also pointed to an “oversaturation of the mobile data networks of some network providers” as well as network congestion, making it so some players couldn’t connect to the internet.

Pokemon GO Fest wasn’t a complete wash. Hanke did note how many people played together once issues were finally ironed out, and fans continued well into the night and throughout Sunday. Players in downtown Chicago participated in more than 69,000 Raid Battles and captured more than 7.7 million Pokemon, including more than 440,000 Legendary Pokemon. Trainers worldwide also participated in 4.6 million Raid Battles and caught more than 500 million Pokemon, including more than 1.9 million Legendary Pokemon.

Finally, Hanke confirmed distributions for the next Legendary Pokemon, Moltres and Zapdos. The former will be available between July 31 and August 7, while the latter is planned between August 8 and August 14. Also keep in mind that Articuno will only be offered through July 31.

Read Hanke’s full message below.

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Niantic CEO on Pokemon GO – state of the game, success halted progress by six months, more

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments

With Pokemon GO celebrating its first anniversary, The Verge spoke with Niantic CEO John Hanke. Hanke weighed in on the state of the game, how the initial success meant the team had to focus on making the game stable instead of working on features, and much more.

Read some comments from Hanke below. The full interview is located here.

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Niantic CEO on Pokemon GO – 2017 update plans, Legendary Pokemon, cheating, missing features

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 38 Comments

This week, Wired’s German division conducted an interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke. Hanke was able to answer some important questions about plans for Pokemon GO in 2017 and more.

First, Hanke was asked about what fans can expect from Pokemon GO’s second big update this year. He confirms that “playing together and gym battles” will be primarily addressed.

“There are a couple of areas that need to be improved – one of them being playing together and gym battles. We released those in an incomplete state. We knew from Ingress that cooperation and planning can be a lot of fun. When people have a common goal, then that’s a strong incentive to meet up with friends or even with people you don’t know.”
“The gameplay in gym battles is very limited. They just don’t work as well as we wish they would. We will overhaul this aspect of the game to ensure more teamwork and to give people a bigger incentive to receive the rewards from gym battles.”

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Niantic adding new features to Pokemon GO soon, wants to hold events, tracker not returning

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 16 Comments

At the start of July, Pokemon GO will be celebrating its first anniversary. The game has no doubt been an incredible success so far over the past several months, but players have been waiting on new features, including the ability to trade Pokemon.

Speaking with Waypoint, Niantic CEO John Hanke did say that new features are due out soon in “an abbreviated form”, with more complete versions to follow later.

Hanke told the site:

“It has far surpassed our expectations in just turning everybody onto the potential for games that break out of the screen. But the priority for Pokémon Go now is to build in those things that reward co-operative gameplay, and make experiences available that offer more depth than just the capturing mechanic.”

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Niantic CEO John Hanke talks Pokemon GO at GamesBeat 2016 conference

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, Videos | 2 Comments

At the GamesBeat 2016 conference, Niantic CEO John Hanke stopped by for a thirty minute chat. Hanke talked about Pokemon GO and more during the event. Here’s the full recording:

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Pokemon GO message from Niantic’s CEO – maintaining service, blocking third-parties, working on Nearby feature

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 6 Comments

Niantic CEO John Hanke has penned a new message about Pokemon GO on the company’s official website.

The main point of the letter was to highlight the importance of maintaining service. Niantic said it was delayed in bringing out the game across Latin America “due to aggressive efforts by third parties to access our servers outside of the Pokemon GO game client and our terms of service”. Third-parties were blocked to free up resources, transition to new features, and avoid cheating.

Hanke also said that Niantic has “heard feedback about the Nearby feature in the game and are actively working on it.”

The full message reads:

Things have been pretty crazy here at Niantic over the last few weeks but despite all of the ups and downs we get up every day inspired by the original goals of Niantic – to create an experience that encourages healthy outdoor exploration and social gameplay. Every positive story we hear (like this one from the UK) motivates us to keep working to support the game and continue the roll-out. Running a product like Pokémon GO at scale is challenging. Those challenges have been amplified by third parties attempting to access our servers in various ways outside of the game itself.