Nintendo and Niantic announce new partnership with Pikmin AR game

Niantic, the developers of Pokemon go, are teaming up with Nintendo again on more AR games based on Nintendo franchises, starting with Pikmin. 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. So the Pikmin game looks like the first of those joint partnership games and Niantic says it will be released later this year.

“The app will include play activities to encourage walking and make walking more enjoyable,” Niantic says in his blog post. “This will be the first title created by our Tokyo studio since its inception in April 2018.”

Niantic says he will share more news about his apps in the future, but who knows which Nintendo franchise will benefit from the AR treatment next.

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

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While gameplay details have not been announced, the Pikmin AR game will still use Niantic’s combination of gameplay and release. As IGN reported during its conversation with Pokemon Go players, some aspects of Niantic’s games have been affected by stay-at-home orders resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Matt TM Kim is the editor-in-chief of IGN.