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Pokémon GO has been an unstoppable force in gaming for the past seven years, generating millions of dollars for its developer Niantic by using the surgical application of FOMO to drive Pokémon fans to spend their real-world cash on in-world PokéCoins. As with any free-to-play game, you don't need PokéCoins to play the game, but having them will ensure you have a more enjoyable experience, allowing you to purchase items that are difficult (if not impossible) to obtain through regular gameplay.
Pokémon Go's success looks like a fluke Niantic will never replicate
Niantic's latest string of flops have failed to capture the magic of its 2016 hit
In 2016, Pokemon Go hit our mobile devices with the force of a nuclear bomb. In its first quarter, people downloaded the game 226 million times, turning Niantic from a relatively unknown developer to a household name. Aiming to capitalize on Pokemon Go's success, it partnered with recognizable franchises like Catan, Harry Potter, Pikmin, and Marvel. Unfortunately, nearly all these projects were canceled during or shortly after release. Today, Niantic's success with Pokemon Go seems like a fluke.
Space Invaders: World Defense lands on Android with the help of Google's ARCore
An AR mobile game that lets you touch grass while defending Earth
Space Invaders is an iconic game that most gamers are aware of because it is one of the first video games to blow up in popularity in the arcades. The player controls a laser cannon at the bottom of the screen and tries to defeat ever-encroaching aliens before they reach the bottom of the screen. The game has been remade and ported to multiple devices over the last few decades, even making its way to mobile. However, the concept for the game has been taken to the next level with the launch of Space Invaders: World Defense, this time with the help of Google's ARCore augmented reality tech.
NBA All-Worlds guide: How to build your b-ball legacy
Virtual dribble your way to the top of the NBA charts in Niantic's new release
Niantic is at it again, trying to emulate the success of its top-earning IP, Pokémon Go. However, there's no semblance of "catch 'em all" in NBA All-World. Instead, Niantic aims to bring sweaty 1v1 faceoffs against famous basketball players in a virtual setting. This means it's time to leave your (possibly) dusty collection of NBA cards behind and start scoring the world's best players from the NBA league inside of Niantic's newest AR game NBA All-World. But, of course, there's something in it for everyone, whether you're trying to recruit your favorite players or simply looking for a new game to fiddle with on your favorite Android phone. So we've compiled a beginner's guide for NBA All-World to assist players in building an unforgettable hoop legacy.
Google celebrates the Fourth of July with an AR fireworks game straight out of 2005
What if you crossed Guitar Hero with patriotic jams?
We here in the United States are sliding into a holiday weekend, with Independence Day falling on Sunday this year. Google has designed a new AR game to celebrate the occasion, combining fireworks, national landmarks, and Guitar Hero into one odd experience.
Niantic briefly publishes two insider testing apps for Ingress Prime (APK Download)
Now you see them, now you don't
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Niantic has just released a beta and dogfood app for Ingress Prime on the Google Play Store. These are both clearly testing apps for the game, and the beta's description even provides a link to a Google Doc for users to report the issues they run into when testing this beta (though this link's text is currently cut off, so you can't navigate to the appropriate page). Then there's the dogfood app, which should ideally exist for Niantic employees to test new features. However, having installed the titles, it's clear they are public-facing, so everyone is free to jump into both the dogfood and beta apps to check them out, and apparently, the release notes for the dogfood version will appear in the Ingress Prime release notes in the future.
Mojang, the original development studio for Minecraft, has worked on more than a few Minecraft spin-offs over the past few years. One of them was Minecraft Earth, a free-to-play augmented reality game where you could build structures in the real world, but the game will now shut down only two years after the initial announcement.
The Witcher: Monster Slayer is a new augmented reality RPG coming to mobile
Who's ready for yet another Pokémon GO clone?
It would appear the CD Projekt Red subsidiary Spokko has been working on a Witcher mobile game. This game is called The Witcher: Monster Slayer, and it's a free-to-play augmented reality RPG, which means it's the latest Pokémon GO clone slated for a mobile release. Of course, Spokko has yet to provide a release date, though the studio has hinted that more details will come to light later this year.
Niantic announces Catan: World Explorers, the fourth augmented reality game from the studio
Wow, another reskin from Niantic
The Pokémon GO developer Niantic has just announced its fourth game, and yes, it's another augmented reality title. Shocking, I know. Since Niantic has already reskinned its original AR game Ingress with a Pokémon theme and a Harry Potter theme, the studio has now set its sights on the popular board game Catan, in cooperation with Asmodee. This upcoming title is called Catan: World Explorers, and it's billed as a massively-multiplayer augmented reality game that will "transform the entire Earth into one giant game of Catan," which at least sounds somewhat interesting.
Snapchat will soon be gaining a set of augmented reality games called Snappables, Snap announced today. Snappables, which should roll out to Snapchatters later this week, are a new form of interactive Lenses through which users can play together (or by themselves) using AR. Some games can be controlled via more traditional methods like touch, but others can be played using motion and even facial expressions.
Niantic might be most well-known now for Pokémon Go, but that title was actually the company's sophomore entry into the world of AR games. Its first was a sci-fi effort called Ingress, and it came out all the way back in 2012. Ingress never quite reached the popularity of its Pokémon-based successor, but there is still a passionate community surrounding it. Yesterday Niantic announced a "reboot" coming in 2018 for the title, to be called Ingress Prime.
It's the most wonderful time of the year... the time when it's almost over. But it's also that turn in the calendar when a couple of billion people look forward to celebrating Christmas, and the youngest portions of that subset start improving their behavior in an avaricious desire for more presents. Google's taking part in its yearly ritual too, indulging whimsical parents and obsessive-compulsive children with its Santa Claus countdown-slash-tracker app.