There are a lot of geek properties lying around just waiting to be developed into an augmented reality game especially now that people are starting to go outside again. But if you bet that Transformers would be the next brand to be turned into one, you might have some good foresight. Niantic, the creators of such groundbreaking AR games like Pokémon Go, Harry Potter Wizards Unite, and Ingress, has announced that they are teaming up with Hasbro and TOMY on a new AR game called Transformers Heavy Metal.
Niantic made the announcement in a blog post by Phil Hong, an executive producer for the gaming company, saying any kid who grew up in the 80s probably were into the Autobots (or the Decepticons for that matter). Of course kids these days are more familiar with the Michael Bay movies probably but wherever spectrum you fall into, an upcoming AR game is probably making you nostalgic or excited or both. And if it is anything like Pokémon Go or Wizards Unite, then it’s something to look forward to.
Unfortunately, we don’t really get any other details about the game though. All the post said is that you will be able to team up with the Autobots, specifically Bumblebee, who is arguably the most popular one of them all. It will also be powered by Niantic Lightship platform and it will be played in the real world. It seems as though Niantic is serving as publisher for this game as Hong mentioned that Seattle’s Very Very Spaceship is the one studio developing the game.
If you’re not so familiar with Niantic, they’re the company behind the popular Pokémon Go which let you capture pokémons in the wild, well until the pandemic hit and you had to look for them in your house. For Potterheads, they were also behind Wizards Unite, another AR game that lets you cast spells, capture magical creatures and all things in the Wizarding World. So even though we don’t have details yet about the gameplay for Transformers Heavy Metal, we may have an idea how it will go at least with the basics.
Hong mentioned the game will soft launch in selected countries soon and we’ll get a global launch later this year. We’ll probably know more about it later on as we get closer to launch. Maybe we’ll get something that more than meets the eye eh?