2019 has been an explosive year for Pokémon GO. From Jirachi to a new generation of Pokémon to collect, new events, and even Team Rocket themselves, we can't wait for what's next for Niantic's mobile masterpiece. Here's what we expect (and what we want) for Pokémon GO in 2020.
Battle League
Niantic announced last Oct. 21, its plans to introduce the Go Battle League, a new way of PVP in Pokémon Go. It'll have ranked tournaments for three leagues: Super, Ultra, and Master. While we don't know what the differences are between the three leagues, only one will be activated at any given time. The three leagues rotate into activity after a set amount of time. So, for trainers hoping to prove themselves as the very best, they'll have to master the rules and restrictions of all three leagues.
PVP was once limited to just local areas, but the new Go Battle Leagues promises online battles wherever a trainer may be. This finally fully connects the Pokémon Go world as trainers don't' have to meet up anymore to prove their strength and skill against each other.
While there are unofficial tournaments that allow players to hold up to six Pokémon (like the original games), Pokémon Go only allows up to three Pokémon per battle. An expanded roster for battle would be a cool new addition and upgrade to Pokémon Go, making players one step closer to finally living like they're in a Pokémon World.
Next Generation
While the mainline series is already on Generation VIII, Pokémon go still at Generation V and is still missing some Pokémon from Unova. If we had it our way, we'd want Niantic to complete the Unova Pokedex ns as well as introduce Generation VI sometime next year. If its anything to go by, we can probably expect Generation VI to drop around the fourth quarter of 2020, similar to when Generation V dropped this year. But we also hope that Niantic slowly inserts the missing Pokémon from Unova throughout the year.
Intergame Integration
While we loved how Pokémon Let's Go, and Pokémon GO allowed players to transfer Pokémon from GO into Let's Go, we'd love to see this feature get integrated into the mainline games as well. It would honestly be cool to walk around the real world and look for Pokémon to capture, then transfer it to your Sword/Shield game file where you can further train it or trade it.
Our dream integration would be cross-game battles. Imagine playing Pokémon GO and battling someone who uses his team from Sword/Shield. But while the concept is cool, there's still quite a bit of content filling that needs to be done from Niantic's side. They'll have to make sure that the Galar region is finally available in Pokémon GO. Not to mention that Galar's Pokedex is considerably smaller, so Niantic will have to make sure that battles between the two games would be fair. But with the GO Battle League, this dream is one step closer to being realized.
Revamped Gyms and Gym Leaders
The Gym system is quite old (in terms of functionality), we'd personally want to see a revamp of the system. Right now, it just feels like battle after battle, which then captures the gym for your team. The new Team Rocket event showed us the possibility of revamping the Gym system. While the current gym system is fine for the most part, we'd welcome Themed Gyms to come into the game once in a while.
It would be cool to slowly fight around an area to get a chance to face off with iconic gym leaders such as Brock. It would also force players to use Pokémon they wouldn't normally consider, and thus make players go out more to capture these Pokémon in their quest to conquer these seasonal Themed Gyms.
