read Trends Technology

Nintendo and Niantic to create augmented reality Pikmin mobile games

The game is set to be released later this year.

Sarah Chan

Likes museum trips and is sometimes artsy. Can be found in pattern prints.

Published: 24 March 2021, 12:01 PM

Nintendo and games developer Niantic have announced a new partnership to create Augmented Reality (AR) mobile games.

Niantic, the developer behind the wildly-successful Pokémon GO, will combine it’s real-world AR technology with Nintendo’s beloved Pikmin franchise to develop the game.

The Pikmin franchise features the small plant-like characters as inhabitants of an Earth-like planet.

In a statement on Mar 23, Nintendo said that the gameplay will be designed to “encourage walking and make the activity enjoyable”.

Users can also experience a world as if Pikmin are “secretly living all around us”, said Nintendo Representative Director Shigeru Miyamoto.

The latest game will be developed by Niantic’s Tokyo Studio and will be the first title created by the studio since its establishment in April 2018, Niantic said in a statement on Mar 22.

The game is slated to be launched globally later this year and is expected to be the first of more titles to come with the partnership.

Details on the app will be released in the coming months. Interested users can pre-register for the latest updates and closed testing invitations here.