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As the Valentine's Day Pokémon Go event draws to a close , fans will have to look ahead to future updates to keep them hooked on the augmented reality mobile game.
The best way to do that is to reignite the potential of players being able to swap and trade their creatures - or face each other in battle .
These two options were promised way back in 2016 when Pokémon Go first exploded onto our smartphone screens.
And now Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke has promised the two features are on the way in an interview with Waypoint .
(Photo: Niantic Labs)
In fact, he says they would have been available sooner if the small company hadn't had to respond to the international surge of popularity the game experienced.
"It's going to be done soon," he told the site.
"It is what it is. I'll take the massive wave of hysteria we enjoyed, and just deal with the fact that it's caused us to take a bit longer to get the rest of the features up. We're really happy to make our users happy."
Other parts of the interview show that the boss of Niantic wants to add depth to the game and continue to give players a feeling of community.
"My heart is really with events, and that's something I really want us to try to solve in 2017," Hanke said.
"It's complicated, though, to do them at the scale that Pokémon Go demands.
"But, to me, that would be the best demonstration of the vision of this company, which is all about playing games together, outside, with other people."
Back in July 2016, Hanke appeared at San Diego Comic Con and said that trading and battles were "top of the priority list".
(Photo: GETTY)
Back in the early days of Pokémon, trading the virtual creatures was a huge part of the franchise.
Two different versions of the first game were released, each with slightly different Pokémon available to catch. Players had to find another gamer with the other copy of the game and trade with them in order to catch all 150 Pokémon.