Earlier this month, Niantic CEO John Hanke has officially confirmed in an interview that Pokémon trading and a Player vs. Player battle system would be coming to "Pokémon Go" soon, but didn't disclose any specific details or release dates. That was pretty much the last thing that people heard about the upcoming new features

However, on Tuesday, speaking at a keynote in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress 2017, Hanke has provided, yet again, another grain of added context, stating that there will be three major new releases hitting "Pokémon Go" in 2017. According to BGR, this is presumably an addition to the latest Generation 2 update.

Hanke did not particularly say what those releases would be consisting of, but based on what has already been known about the road map for "Pokémon Go," many analysts are assuming that he is talking about the much awaited Pokémon trading, PvP battle mode, and a revamped gym system. Unfortunately, that was all he was willing to share about the future of the hit mobile game.

Sources are also claiming that trading has taken a back seat, as per dronpes of The Silph Road subreddit, so it's either PvP battles or the new gym system will likely be the first of the three big updates to hit the game.

As for the timing, VG24/7 reports that Niantic will, in theory, push through with the updates when they are ready, but if Generation 2 would count as the first of four major updates in 2017, it would make sense to separate them out by about three months a piece.

If that is the case, "Pokemon Go" players can probably expect the next update to land sometime in May. But either way, Niantic will surely announce more information about the three new "major releases" when it already has some concrete information to share with us.

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