Niantic and Hasbro Partner on AR Mobile Game “Transformers: Heavy Metal”
Very Very Spaceship is leading game development and Takara Tomy will publish the game in Japan
Niantic, Hasbro, and Takara Tomy are teaming up to publish “Transformers: Heavy Metal,” an AR game that brings Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to life in the real world through the Niantic Lightship platform and augmented reality development tools.
“Transformers is the perfect franchise for AR. Battling and interacting with giant robots in the real world will be an amazing experience,” said John Hanke, CEO of Niantic. “We want to live up to the high expectations of Transformers fans around the world and bring them a game, unlike anything they’ve played before.”
In “Transformers: Heavy Metal,” players will join the Guardian Network, a group of humans who have banded together with the Autobots in a war against the Decepticons. As a Guardian, players will uncover hidden regions across Earth to find resources and battle Decepticons in turn-based battles, either solo or with friends.
With a planned global launch later this year, Transformers: Heavy Metal, will enter soft launch in select markets soon. Takara Tomy will publish the game in Japan, and Seattle-based Very Very Spaceship is leading the development of the game.
The Lightship platform is Niantic’s planet-scale AR platform that sets the standard for AR, real-time 3D mapping, and multiplayer social experiences. With the Niantic Lightship ARDK, developers can build their own AR worlds using advanced development tools to build realistic AR experiences that leverage location, environmental context, and shared multiplayer views to create entirely new types of AR experiences.