Skip to main content

Pokemon Go developer introduces AR pet game Peridot

Niantic, the developer of Pokemon Go, has announced Peridot, a new AR pet simulator that revolves around raising, caring for, and breeding the titular creatures. It’s the company’s first original AR game since 2014’s Ingress, and it’s practically a combination of Neopets and Tamagotchi — which many of us grew up carrying around in the early aughts.

In the game, Peridots (or Dots, for short) wake up to a world that is vastly different from their own after sleeping for thousands of years and need the player’s help to save them from the edge of extinction. Much like Pokemon Go, Peridot encourages players to step outside their comfort zone and explore the world with their cute, mystical pets and learn more about them as they experience life from birth to adulthood.

Peridot | Official Announcement Teaser

Dots grow through each life stage and gain experience points when you pet them, play with them, and train them. They also grow when you fulfill their every desire, such as walking, visiting a point of interest, or eating a blue tomato. Once they reach adulthood, they’ll be ready to breed with other Dots, which requires getting help from other players to diversify their species and rehabilitate their declining population. Dots have such unique DNA that their babies resemble different animals when they hatch, such as unicorns, cheetahs, rabbits, dogs, and birds.

Just like in Pokemon Go and Pikmin Bloom, Niantic will use its Lightship ARDK technology that allows Dots to recognize different terrain such as grass, sand, dirt, and asphalt. The food and items they will forage for will vary depending on the type of ground they’re walking on.

Peridot will get a soft launch later this month. As of this writing, Niantic hasn’t shared an actual release date.

Editors' Recommendations

Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…
NBA All-World aims to replicate Pokémon Go’s success starting today
A player walks around their neighborhood's map in NBA All-World.

Niantic launched NBA All-World, its basketball-themed, location-based mobile game, on iOS and Android today. Ahead of this release, Digital Trends attended a presentation to learn more about how the sports AR title works.
If you've played any of Niantic's games before, many elements of NBA All-World will feel quite familiar. The mobile game tracks players' location and encourages them to explore. While doing so, players will find Drop Zones that grant them new gear. Niantic says Drop Zones will often be placed near real-world counterparts, so players can find money near a bank or shoes near a shoe store. 
There will also be Player Encounters, where they can face off against current NBA athletes. Niantic tells Digital Trends that classic athletes aren't currently in the game, but feels that idea "is a good one." 

In Player Encounters, users face off against athletes in one of four minigames: 3-Point Shootout, Beat the Clock, Around the World, and First-to-Five. While they feature some impressive and realistic animation for a mobile game, Niantic says these minigames only use simple swipe controls because the studio wanted to make something that is easy to play while someone is walking around their neighborhood. If a user wins a Player Encounter, they can recruit that athlete to their team, customize them with items found at Drop Zones, and upgrade them by playing with them. Players can also challenge players they already recruited again to earn more currency. 
The title also includes "Rule the Court" neighborhood leaderboards, many of which are placed at real-world basketball courts, where players can compete for the highest score. Currently, there are no player-versus-player elements in NBA All-World, although Niantic understands players like competitive modes in their sports games and may add them in the future. In fact, many features are still in the pipeline for post-launch updates, including Niantic's trademark AR support. Early in the second quarter of 2023, Niantic plans on adding AR support to NBA All-World to enhance the loot drops from Drop Zones to make it look like they're happening in the real world.
One thing that will be in the game at launch is microtransactions, which Niantic says will be similar to the ones available in its other games and allow players to increase their athletes' stats with Offense, Defense, and Fitness boosts. 
Despite the undeniable success of Pokémon Go, Niantic has never been able to completely replicate its success with games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite or Pikmin Bloom. However, the studio seems confident that basketball has the global mass appeal to make NBA All-World another massive hit for the company. The early footage we saw of the game does leave us optimistic for NBA All-World's prospects, but we'll ultimately have to wait and see if the game will make it past its rookie season. 
NBA All-World is available now for iOS and Android.

Read more
Marvel Snap’s Winterverse event introduces new cards, variants, and more
Marvel Snap art highlights Winterverse variants for Rogue, Ebony Maw, Patriot, and Rockslide.

The latest Marvel Snap update kicks off the Winterverse event, bringing many holiday-themed variants and brand-new cards to the mobile card game.
The two new cards coming to Marvel Snap this week are Darkhawk and Sentry. Darkhawk is a superhero who first emerged in the 1990s and has a techno-organic body with glider wings. In Marvel Snap, he's a 4-Cost, 1-Power Ongoing card that gives +2 Power for each card in the deck of your opponent.
Meanwhile, Sentry is a hero that was introduced in 2000 that has Superman-like abilities, but is connected to an evil entity called the Void that's just as powerful. In-game, that translates to Sentry being a 4-Cost On Reveal card with 8-Power that can't be played at the right location, as playing Sentry will cast a -8 power Void card there.
https://twitter.com/MARVELSNAP/status/1605269381176758272
We don't know if Sentry and Darkhawk are Series 3, Series 4, or Series 5 cards yet. It will take some time for Marvel Snap's meta to evolve and really prove whether or not Darkhawk and Sentry are all that useful, but they do both have interesting abilities. Regardless, keep an eye out for them in Collector's Reserves and in the Token Shop.
They're not the only part of the Winterverse event, though. From December 20 until January 2, Second Dinner is giving away in-game awards for logging in each day. These range from 100 credits to a special Nick Fury card variant featuring Samuel L. Jackson's signature. Five new winter-themed card variants will also start to show up in the shop and Collector's Reserves. You can now find Winterverse cards for Abomination, Ebony Maw, Patriot, Rockslide, and Rogue.
A Winterverse bundle that includes a Sunspot Winterverse Variant, Avatar, 2000 Collector's Tokens, 8000 credits, 100 Sunspot Boosters, and a "Tacos After This?" title will be added to the shop in the coming days as well. 
Marvel Snap is available now for iOS, Android, and PC, and it even made Digital Trends' best games of 2022 list.

Read more
From The Last of Us to Immortality, these are 2022’s most innovative games
A video game character standing in front of text that says 2022 Most Innovative Games.

What makes the video game industry so exciting is that it’s still relatively young. Developers are still routinely discovering new ways to turn the medium on its head, redefining the idea of what a game is by bucking against trends. Though major productions like God of War Ragnarok are no doubt impressive, the most groundbreaking titles are often the less obvious ones.

That was the case in 2022, which saw developers entirely deconstructing some fundamentals about games. In some cases, that was expressed through new approaches to gameplay, creating experiences that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen from the medium. Others were even more high-level, challenging us to think about who certain projects are for. From a massive remake project to the tiniest action game, these were some of 2022’s most innovative games.
The Last of Us Part I

Read more