Nintendo and Niantic announce new partnership with Pikmin AR game

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

“The app will include game activities to encourage walking and to have fun,” Niantic said in his blog post. “This will be the first title our Tokyo Studio has created since its inception in April 2018.”

Niantic says it will share more news about its apps in the future, but who knows which Nintendo franchise will get the AR treatment next.

Niantic made its name on real AR games like Ingress. When Niantic released Pokémon Go in 2016, it was and remains a full-fledged phenomenon. Since then, Niantic has been working with other licenses such as Settler of Catan and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. But the new partnership means Niantic will work with Nintendo to create several new AR programs.

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Although game details have not been released, the Pikmin AR game will still use the combination of game and exit from Niantic. As IGN reported when talking to Pokémon Go players, aspects of Niantic’s games were affected by the stay-at-home orders, which were the result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

MattTM Kim is IGN’s news editor.