Trading was one of the features that was announced for Pokemon GO all the way back when the game was first announced. Last yea, Pokemon GO launched without it, though developers Niantic insisted that it was coming, and that its addition to the game remains a priority. We are now nine months separated from launch, and the game still does not have trading.
However, speaking at GDC, the game’s senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura told Polygon that trading will come to the game- but that it might not be online enabled, instead being restricted to local trades only.
“We don’t want to just have that be an online game that you can just exchange virtually,” he said. “You shouldn’t be able to exchange your Pokemon with someone who is 100 miles away from you … The person needs to be in your proximity.”
He was asked how this might help players who live in more remote locations with less Pokemon spawn- and he added that trading isn’t meant to compensate for that issue, which was meant to tie into the game’s social nature.
“I wasn’t really thinking of trading as a way to solve the local area spawn issue,” admitted Nomura. “That was more, we have a couple Pokemon that only spawn in a couple regions, and that was the hope, that some Pokemon you have to know someone or find someone who lives in certain regions and meet and exchange.”
Pokemon GO is available now on iOS and Android devices.
