Pokémon Go gyms are temporarily closed from 19 June. A notice is seen on the support website noting “Gyms will temporarily close starting Monday, June 19. Any Pokémon you’ve assigned to Gyms will be returned to you at that time.”

Niantic Labs, the developer of Pokémon Go, wrote in an earlier statement explaining the temporary closure.

“To kick things off, we will be hosting the Solstice Event starting on June 13, 2017…Soon thereafter, you can look forward to a new update focused on collaborative group gameplay features that will get you playing Pokémon GO in fun new ways. In preparation for these exciting features, we’ll be temporarily disabling Gyms for a short period of time.”

There were no definitive statements on how long the Gyms will be offline for, or what the new features will be; although it’s rumoured the company wants to overhaul gyms to help fight cheating. It might also introduce raids, allowing players to team up or play against one another in the gyms.

A spokesperson for Niantic confirmed on Reddit that the move is so Trainers can collect their Defender bonus points:

“As we get ready to update Pokémon GO, we want to ensure that Trainers have a sufficient heads up that Gyms will soon be disabled so that they can collect their Defender bonus. We will provide updates on our social channels in advance of Gyms closing in-game.”