Pokemon Go PvP And Legendaries Reportedly Coming This Summer

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that PvP battles and legendary Pokemon will come to the mobile game this summer.

Niantic's VP of strategic partnerships, Mathieu de Fayet, told the newspaper (translated by Reddit users Constyy and Hisucchi and verified by Google Translate) that the features were originally meant to launch earlier, but that Pokemon Go's success meant they had to be delayed.

"Due to the large success of the game, we had to delay some planned innovations," he said. "Right now we are working on some that are due to hit this summer (in the northern hemisphere), such as giving more value to the choice of the teams, releasing Legendary Pokemon and introducing PvP. One thing we learned with Ingress was that the game can sustain itself if we are able to create social interactions amongst players, and we are working on that."

GameSpot has contacted Niantic to clarify whether the features will definitely come to Pokemon Go this summer.

The developer had previously said new features, such as trading and PvP battles, would come "soon" and that legendary monsters would be catchable this year. Just last week, Niantic teased legendary Pokemon again by saying, "This summer will be legendary."

One legendary bird, Articuno, was spotted in some players' rosters last year, but it was later revoked by Niantic.

"We recently noticed that a few Legendary Pokemon got into a few accounts when they shouldn't have," the company said at the time. "To preserve the game's integrity and as a measure of fairness, we have rectified the situation and revoked the legendary Pokemon from the Trainers' accounts."