'Pokémon Go' developers feel you: Gyms need to be improved

Collecting and evolving Pokémon in Pokémon Go is a lot of fun, but the competitive side of the popular mobile app is lacking. Developer Niantic recognizes that.

Pokémon Go's gym feature needs to be improved, Niantic admitted in an interview with multiple outlets during the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Polygon reported Thursday.

"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," senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura told Polygon during Game Developers Conference 2017. "Overall, I think we need a little bit more time to think through how we do it."

In Pokémon Go, gyms are specific landmarks pockmarked across the world where players can use their Pokémon to battle for supremacy. If a player wins enough battles against a gym's leader(s), they take control of it (or join it if their team already has control of it) and select a Pokémon to defend the gym against other players.

While it can feel cool to take over a gym, the battle system is very rudimentary and not particularly enjoyable, and players never actually interact with the players they are attacking or defending against.

Niantic CEO John Hanke told Wired earlier this year that the gym feature is very limited and that the developer intends to change the gym system, mentioning more teamwork and better rewards to incentivize players.

Polygon said Niantic is expecting to rework the gym system sometime in 2017.