Pokemon Go news has been dominated over the last few weeks by the launch of the new Gen 3 updates.

And while these are set to continue in 2018, it appears that Niantic have a lot of other new ideas for the game.

Having seen a list of additional features launched this year, it would seem likely that the development team already have a few projects underway for 2018.

We  know that Niantic are trying to work out a way to incorporate a trading system, as well as add new PvP options to Pokemon Go.

When we recently spoke to members of the team, we were interested to find out just what other things could be coming, following the release of the new Weather Effects.

Niantic developer Matt Slemon told us that they’ve been getting ideas from their team, as well as from fan feedback and the Pokemon Company.

“We do have a long list of features that we do want to get too eventually,” he explained.

“Many are community asks, and a lot of them are team ideas, or suggestions from the Pokemon Company.” 

As you can imagine, adding Gen 3 Pokemon from the Ruby and Sapphire games made including the new Weather Effects epecially fitting, as those were the first titles where conditions started to play a role in battling.

“Building AR games is at the core of what are company is trying to do, especially with Pokemon Go,” Slemon adds.

“As we move forward, I can can continue to expect us to choose features that both provide a good tie-in with Augmented Reality, as well as being strong on Pokemon features.”

There was no talk of what the next big feature will be, although we can expect that any big updates launched in early 2018 will likely come with a few Gen 3 Pokemon as well.

Niantic recently rolled out a new update that’s sure to help all Pokemon Go Gen 3 trackers.

The development team has confirmed plans to release a new wave of Gym and Pokestop locations.

This is being done using Niantic’s older AR title, Ingress. Ingress Agents are able to submit new locations via the Operation Portal Recon program.

This also happens to affect Pokemon Go, with Niantic confirming that new locations will be popping up this week.

“With the help of Ingress Agents around the world using Operation Portal Recon, we’ve identified interesting new locations to play our games,” a message from the Niantic support team explains.

“We’re happy to say that many of these locations will also be added to @PokemonGoApp over the next few days.”

This could prove a huge boost to Gen 3 collectors and Raid players, especially in rural areas.

Other Pokemon Go news this week suggests that a big update could be coming to the game. 

Trainers are reporting that the game's new Gyms are seeing longer Raid times than other, older locations.

According to those affected, the new wave of Gyms that were added as part of a big Ingress, have been providing longer Raid windows.

Some players are reporting Raids lasting until 8:30pm, while other have seen new Gyms last until 7:30pm.

It's unclear if this is something that Niantic are just experimenting with, or are hoping to rollout to all Pokemon Go Gyms at a later date.

More details on the recent Gyms extension can be found below, with new locations popping up for many Trainers.