Datamining gamers have discovered a new potential cooperative game feature coming toPokemon GO. After a recent Niantic blog post mentioned upcoming “new cooperative social gameplay experiences,” dataminers took toPokemon GO’s code and discovered lines of code about “nearby raids” and gym updates.
While the gym updates will certainly be a welcome addition, it’s the mention of raids that has most players excited. For those who may not be familiar with massive multiplayer online (MMO) games, raids are large-scale events that require many player participants in order to succeed. When groups are able to complete raids, they are rewarded with the best loot a game has to offer.
With that in mind, it seems Niantic is planning to introduce raids intoPokemon GO, which would push players to work together to take down tough enemies. These will most likely be powerful Pokemon or well-known gym trainers from Nintendo’sPokemonseries.
It’s worth mentioning that the originalPokemon GOannouncement trailer included raids, and showed a massive group of players in New York City taking on Mewtwo, one of the most powerful Pokemon in the franchise’s history. Naturally, gamers would love the opportunity to take on such an iconic Pokemon with their friends and strangers.
We will note that the originalPokemon GOtrailer also included features like trading and player-versus-player battles, neither of which are currently available in the game. That said, a Niantic spokesperson said a couple months ago thatboth these features will be coming soon.
Hopefully that means raids really are in the works forPokemon GO, but it could also mean that the feature is a ways out. If it’s taken this long to add trading and battles after Niantic mentioned they were coming, a simple mention of raid in the game’s code may mean players shouldn’t expect the game mode to be available for a while.
Of course that’s all speculation until Niantic provides an official statement on the matter. Hopefully now that the cat’s out of the bag with the datamining, Niantic will come through and confirm raids forPokemon GO.
Pokemon GOis currently available on Android and iOS devices.
