Pok¨¦mon Go teases four-player parties
Friends with Beartics.
Pokémon Go looks set to introduce the ability to party up, and explore alongside friends in-game.
A teaser image posted on social media shows the silhouettes of four in-game avatars standing next to a gym with a raid egg, suggesting that four-player teams will be able to travel together and head as one into the game's PVE battles.
Pokémon Go developer Niantic captioned the image with a teasing eye emoji, an emoji wearing a party hat, and the hashtag #GoStartTheParty.
Pokémon Go has never included the ability to see other players, outside of your friends list and during shared battles. The suggestion here is that you'll be able to see other player's avatars wandering around the map when grouped together in a gameplay party.
It's a gameplay feature that Niantic has already experimented with in another one of its games, Pikmin Bloom, which lets you opt in to making your avatar visible to others while you are actively engaged in its flower planting activity.
It'll be interesting to hear how Niantic has approached the obvious safety considerations of letting Pokémon Go fans see each other - and their live locations.
There's no official word yet on when the feature is due to be announced, but we expect to hear more soon.
2023 has seen Pokémon Go add a variety of new features, including Shadow Raids, PokéStop Contests, and Routes. But it's also been a tough year for Niantic, which has suffered major layoffs as it refocuses its business and cuts projects.