"Pokemon Go" players hoping to catch Legendary Pokemon will be able to catch them this year as Niantic confirms it will include the elusive Pokemon in 2017.

Niantic CEO John Hanke said Legendary Pokemon, such as Gen 1 Legendary Articuno and Gen 2 Legendary Entei, will be coming to the game this year, the Express reported. Hanke said the Legendaries will be included in one of the three major updates the augmented-reality game is set to receive this year.

Hanke didn't exactly say when the Legendaries will be included in the game, however. This means these Pokemon might be introduced now, or on Easter, or in September. They could also be introduced on Halloween or on Christmas, or even be introduced as some sort of a surprise for the game's first anniversary this summer.

Catch 'em all to good health

Since Pokemon Go requires going around to hunt for Pokemon, we can expect more players to come out of their homes to hunt once the Legendaries arrive (provided they don't use a GPS Spoofing hack like Pokemon Go++). While going around to catch 'em all might be tiring, a new study shows that it does bring more than just a chance to catch that Pikachu, BGR reported.

According to researchers from Duke Health, Pokemon Go is greatly beneficial for people who are overweight or don't have much physical activity on a regular day. The researchers arrived at this conclusion after observing that playing the game helped many participants reach 10,000 daily steps, as compared to the time before they started playing it.

Hanzhang Xu, a Ph.D. student at Duke University School of Nursing and the study's lead author, said enjoyment and time are big factors why people miss out on physical activity. Since Pokemon Go requires players to have some physical activity to have fun, it's a great way to encourage people to exercise, he said.