Niantic just announced a new augmented reality mobile game in partnership with the NBA and NBPA. NBA All-World will let fans compete against other players in their own neighborhoods. The game will use geolocation to enable players to find other users and challenge them in a one-on-one multiplayer basketball game on their smartphones.
NBA All-World will be another title that expands the geolocation gaming genre that Niantic pioneered with Ingress and Pokémon Go. Niantic’s formula has been to create new geolocation games with famous brands such as Harry Potter or Pikmin, and it is also licensing its AR/geolocation platform to indie devs through a platform called Lightship.
San Francisco-based Niantic said NBA All-World will be a “first-of-its-kind game that will place NBA fans into the real-world metaverse,” which layers computer animations atop the real world when viewed through augmented reality glasses or smartphones.
In NBA All-World, basketball courts in the real world have been turned into courts where you can ball and compete with the best players in the league, virtually. Individuals will be able to move around the map as they walk around, looking out for Drop Zones with “gear” users can collect and use to customize their players. NBA All-World is now in soft launch, with a planned global launch during the 2022-2023 NBA season.
