While speaking with Polygon about one of the most core aspects of its popular mobile game, Niantic senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura said that gyms in Pokémon GO are due for an overhaul soon.

"The gym portion [of Pokémon Go] needs a lot more work, and we are trying to improve it and make a bigger change to how the system works. Overall, I think we need a little bit more time to think through how we do it."

Lately, Niantic has been talking a lot about how it feels the game's mechanics can improve, as well as what can be added to the game to enhance the experience, including a "trading" element expected to release sometime this year. According to Nomura-san, the way gyms were originally created in the game was a very conscious choice, but it's not lost on the team that the mechanic doesn't exactly meet player expectations.

"We needed to define [gyms] in a way that works in a mobile game. For example, we didn’t have ... there’s no non-playable characters. That’s not how the game works. We’re an MMO, and we expect people to play with other people.

"We expected more people to play that portion, and a lot of that is game balancing and just mechanics-wise, there’s some part of that that needs refinement."

Although it seems that gyms and trading are a focus for Niantic right now, the developer also has a plan in the works to bring legendary pokémon.