That Nintendo and Niantic have parallel paths is no secret. It was denoted with the development of Pokémon GO and with subsequent works, although over the years that relationship continues to strengthen. Unlike wearing out, this collaboration continues to bear fruit, something that is noticeable in the next Pikmin launch.
And you wonder, what is Pikmin about? If you still do not know if it is a new game or an application, here we give you the first information available about this new development. A development that is very much aimed at what Pokémon GO already does, and is to promote exercise with the use of the mobile.
Another development that is based on Augmented Reality
This Pikmin video game for mobile devices will also be the first title created by the Niantic Tokyo Studio, a team created in April 2018 as a result of the growth of the company, and will try to transfer the game philosophy of Pokémon GO to the Pikmin universe. The app will have activities designed to encourage players to walk and, ultimately, gamify the fact of going out to the street for a walk.
Of course, it still does not have a definitive name, and will be released on mobile phones later in 2021. “Niantic's augmented reality technology has made it possible to experience the world as if the Pikmin live around us in secret", Assures Shigeru Miyamoto, acting as Nintendo's representative director.
The father of the original saga maintains that “based on the theme of have a good time walking, our mission is to offer people a new experience that differs from traditional games. Therefore, from the few details that have been provided in this regard, we know that it will be a title that will combine Niantic's augmented reality technology with the friendly characters of the Nintendo saga, with activities with which you want encourage users to go out on the street.
When is the Pikmin launch?
That is another of the unknowns to solve. At the moment no material has been provided about how this new Pikmin game will be seen, although its launch on mobile phones is scheduled to occur at the end of 2021, on a date to be determined. It is unknown what this Pikmin app will be like and how much it will have from Pokémon GO.
However, what is available are the pre-registrations, which are already open through this link. This game is just one link in a chain that they intend to build between Niantic and Nintendo. The fact of associating with Nintendo is a “natural step” in those objectives of developing titles such as Pokémon GO, Harry Potter Wizards Unite or this Pikmin, which include in the agreement the use of more Nintendo characters in the future; although Niantic has not declared which ones.
The truth is that this work is not going to be a pioneer, since it has past editions on other consoles. In this way, the first work was published on GameCube in 2001; Pikmin 2 did the same in said system in 2004; Pikmin 3, meanwhile, was originally released in 2013 for Wii U and 2020 for Nintendo Switch.