There’s no denying that Pokemon Go is Niantic’s bread and butter; the game made Niantic almost $2 billion last year alone. But Niantic isn’t foolish enough to bank its entire future on a single franchise, which is why they’ve partnered with Hasbro to bring another classic franchise to mobile.
Transformers: Heavy Metal is an augmented reality mobile game like Pokemon Go, but instead of battling it out with Pokemon, you play as Autobots and Decepticons fighting for the future of planet Earth. The game releases later this year and starts with a closed beta in New Zealand later this month.
“This isn’t a battle on a distant planet in a galaxy far, far away,” Niantic CEO John Hanke told Bloomberg in an interview. “It’s about giant robots coming to Earth and having battles in the middle of Los Angeles. For us, giant robots walking around the real world is just too good to pass up.”
Niantic has released some concept art and screenshots that show an updated look to Hasbro’s classic characters, including some early sketches of Bumblebee. He doesn’t quite look the same as Netflix’s War for Cybertron series, but he’s close.
We don’t have much else in terms of details, but we do know that Niantic has partnered with Seattle-based developer Very Very Spaceship to create Transformers: Heavy Metal, and that the game will have a soft launch in select countries “soon.” Pre-registration is available now on the Heavy Metal website.
Besides developing almost a dozen new games, Niantic is also working on creating a mobile AR platform. The company has partnered with Qualcomm on some AR glasses and is also working with Microsoft on HoloLens for an even more realistic AR experience. Bloomberg reports that Hanke isn’t sure when or even if either of these technologies will make it to market.
In the meantime, Pokemon Go Fest is just around the corner, and we’ve got all the details right here for you.
