On Tuesday, Nintendo Co Ltd announced that it’s working with Pokemon Go app developer Niantic to make augmented reality (AR) titles, with a Pikmin themed app launching this year. The collaboration could resurrect Nintendo’s stalled mobile ambitions after the corporate struggled to breed the recognition of Pokemon Go, which became a social phenomenon as gamers poured onto the streets to “catch” Pokemon using their phones. Niantic, the creator of Pokemon Go, has released a Pikmin app.
San Francisco-based Niantic becomes Nintendo’s fourth smartphone app development partner, possibly providing a much-needed boost to the Kyoto-based company’s mobile efforts. Since 2016, Nintendo has collaborated on fewer than ten smartphone games with DeNA Co, Cygames Inc, and Line Corp. Nintendo’s stock soared more than 2% in early trading in Tokyo.
Niantic’s Tokyo studio, which was established in 2018, is developing the first mobile adaptation of the long-running Pikmin franchise, in which users direct hordes of plant-like Pikmin creatures to complete puzzles. Niantic’s AR technology allows you to experience the world as if Pikmin were secretly living everywhere. Tatsuo Nomura, head of Niantic’s Tokyo studio, said, “With Pikmin, it will make walking more enjoyable and It will be totally different from Pokemon Go.”
Nintendo’s mobile releases have underperformed and lagged behind management’s expectations. Pokemon Smile, a toothbrushing app with elements of play, and Pokemon Sleep, an upcoming sleep monitoring app, are two unusual Nintendo-backed apps with elements of play. The Pikmin app is unlikely to “set the world on fire” in the same way that the Pokemon did. “Every grandparent is conversant in Pokemon, but only gamers are conversant in Pikmin,” said Serkan Toto, founding father of game industry consultancy Kantan Games.
The belated opening of the Super Nintendo World area at Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan theme park last week, bolstered the Kyoto-based gaming company’s attempts to extend beyond console gaming. The collaboration does not include any additional financial support for Niantic from the Japanese video game behemoth, which joined Google and Pokémon Co in a $30 million (RM123.45 million) funding round for the studio in 2015.
