Hasbro and Niantic's new game will drop Transformers into the real world like Pokemon Go
Transformers: Heavy Metal is the first new game built on Niantic's multiplayer AR platform, Lightship.
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Transformers: Heavy Metal is an AR phone game built off Pokemon Go maker Niantic's tools.
Pokemon Go, but for Transformers. That's the best way to describe what Hasbro, Tomy and Niantic's upcoming game, Transformers: Heavy Metal, looks like. It won't be the last multiplayer Pokemon Go-like game, either.
What a battle should look like.
Niantic's multiplayer and world-spanning AR app platform, Lightship, was announced earlier this year with plans to enable all sorts of social AR experiences on phones. Hasbro and Tomy's game is the first announced brand partnership on the platform.
According to the press release from Niantic, "players will join the Guardian Network, a group of humans who have banded together with the Autobots in a war against the Decepticons. As a Guardian, players will uncover hidden regions across Earth to find resources and battle Decepticons in turn-based battles, either solo or with friends."
The few early images look like they'll involve finding and scanning locations and confronting Transformers in AR, much like Pokemon Go.
The game is being developed by Seattle-based Very Very Spaceship, with Tomy leading the game's release in Japan. According to Niantic, the game will launch later this year, but it'll soft launch in a beta in certain regions soon.
Niantic already has a new Pikmin-based Nintendo mobile game in development and expected soon, too.