After the gigantic success of Pokémon Go, Niantic ventures to the next augmented reality game. This time, the rights to the Harry Potter series should provide the necessary interest.
Harry Potter - Wizards Unite: Niantic announces new AR game
Pokémon Go 2016 was the absolute hype app. In just seven months, developer Niantic was able to get more than $ 1 billion in the augmented reality game. The app was downloaded more than 750 million times until June 2017. With these numbers, it was only a matter of time before the Google spin-off Niantic would add a new game. In doing so, the company seems to remain faithful to the successful model of the past. As Niantic has now announced, the next game will focus on Augmented Reality - and a well-known brand: Harry Potter.
The game will be titled "Harry Potter - Wizards Unite" and in 2018 come on the market. As with Pokémon Go, players should explore their surroundings. Instead of cute Pokémons, they are supposed to encounter goblins, centaurs and other magical creatures known from the books of JK Rowling. The game will be released in cooperation with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and WB Games.
Can Niantic repeat the success of Pokémon Go?
Niantic does not seem to deviate very far from the successful model of Pokémon Go. Again, the world must be explored by augmented reality, and again, the whole thing takes place under a name that certainly has a certain traction in nerds. However, in the meantime, augmented reality has moved much more into the focus of Apple, Google and Microsoft.
By the time "Harry Potter - Wizards Unite" come, there will certainly be quite a few apps using Apple's AR kit, for example. Then it will become clear how enthusiastic players will be of this technology.