Pokémon GO developer Niantic has just announced its fourth game, and yes, it’s another augmented reality title. Shocking, I know. Since Niantic has already redesigned its original AR Ingress game with a Pokémon theme and a Harry Potter theme, the studio has now set its sights on the popular board game Catan, in cooperation with Asmodee. This next title is called Catan: explorers of the world, and it is advertised as a massive multiplayer augmented reality game that “will transform the whole Earth into a giant game of Catan”, which at least sounds somewhat interesting.
Since Niantic is quite fond of leaking information, rather than waiting until it has something worth displaying, there is very little information on Catan – the upcoming World Explorers mobile launch. All we know now is that the game should come “soon”. Ideally, you will be able to harvest, trade and build, just like you would in the board game, but this time you will do it in the real world through AR, and your friends can join. It also appears that the cards will play an important role as they will be used to transform their settlements into prosperous cities. It seems like there’s some sort of seasonal mechanic in the mix as well, so I’d expect strong monetization to be the foundation of such a system, especially since Niantic is rarely shy when it comes to this.
Of course, since Niantic hasn’t shared any specifics about Catan: World Explorers, we still don’t know when the game will arrive, how the board game-based game will actually monetize or look like. At the very least, Niantic has released an official website for the title where interested parties can subscribe to receive email updates, which also works as a way to pre-register for a safe place at launch, which the game doesn’t seem to get. a worldwide release as long as it finally hits the Play Store (at least not at first).
All in all, I can’t say it’s surprising to know that Niantic is still interested in releasing more AR games, especially since today’s announcement He mentions that the studio is currently working on ten new titles. Clearly, Niantic is a powerhouse in the industry, and while its choice of monetization in what is primarily children’s games is rather off-putting, I suppose the studio has no reason to stop the money train, and I’m sure Catan: World Explorers will find as much success as the studio’s last two brand titles.
