Creator of "Pokemon Go" returns to "real world" recipe for NBA game
The hit smartphone game "Pokemon Go" was released seven years ago, and now its developers want to give their new basketball game the same "real-world" appeal.
While "Pokemon Go" players were directed by their mobile devices to actual sites where they could find magical animals to capture, "NBA All-World" players can play one another to games on the street.
John Hanke, emphasises that, like Pokemon, gamers of the NBA game will only need a mobile phone and won't need to purchase pricey VR headgear or goggles.
He is promoting this hybrid game as a "real-world metaverse," setting it apart from the experience favoured by Microsoft and others, in which users sit at home wearing masks.
In an interview with AFP, he said, "I think it's vital to promote what we do in the actual world as human beings, like going to the restaurant, meeting our friends, and not remaining at home."
"I find the idea of wearing a VR headset by yourself to be a really bleak and frightening future. I really hope that's not where humanity is going."
Players get to meet and play other people in the street in "NBA All-World," which will be published this week in France and next Tuesday everywhere else.
Since its release in July 2016, when it became a worldwide craze with over a billion downloads, "Pokemon Go" has produced almost $1 billion
However, Niantic hasn't been able to create a hit that even comes close to matching that calibre.It's also had some notable failures.
Due to a lack of interest, it shut down "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" in January of last year after it was first released in 2019.
Niantic also made drastic personnel reductions last year, cutting 8% of its workforce and stopping four video game projects, similar to many other digital companies.
The head of Niantic claimed that "Pokemon Go," the first game of its sort, "caught the world by surprise."