Nintendo and Niantic announce new partnership starting with an AR Pikmin game

Pokémon Go developers Niantic are joining Nintendo again in more AR games based on Nintendo franchises, starting with Pikmin. The Niantic blog post announced a new partnership between developer AR and Nintendo where the two companies will “jointly develop mobile titles” using Niantic’s AR technology and Nintendo characters. The Pikmin game then sounds like the first of those partner games and Niantic says it will be released later this year.

“The app will include game activities to encourage walking and make walking more enjoyable,” said Niantic on his blog. “This will be the first title created by our Tokyo Studio since it was established in April 2018.”

Niantic says it will share more news about its applications in the future, although who knows which Nintendo franchise will receive the following AR treatment.

Niantic has made a name for itself in real-world AR games like Ingress. When Niantic launched Pokémon Go in 2016, it was and remains a developed phenomenon. Since then, Niantic has worked with other licenses, such as Settler of Catan and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. But the new partnership means that Niantic will partner with Nintendo to create several new AR applications.

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Although the details of the game have not been announced, the Pikmin AR game will still use Niantic’s combination of gameplay and fun. As IGN reported when speaking with Pokémon Go players, some aspects of Niantic’s games were affected by the stay-at-home orders that were the result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Matt TM Kim is the news editor at IGN.