Imagine a Pokemon Go-like AR game but with the NBA as its central theme. That’s kind of what NBA All-World, a newly announced offering from Niantic, is going to be. We say “kind of” since very few details about the said game have been revealed by the makers.
NBA All-World will obviously be a mobile game and include official NBA licensing. In true Niantic fashion, it will include PvP battling and location control. This means players will be required to roam around in the real world in order to pick up challenges.
A swipe-based one-on-one basketball scenario looks to be on the cards as far as PvP battles are concerned. As players go around the real-world map, they will not only encounter basketball courts but shops selling merchandise as well.
They will even be able to collect real-world NBA players by encountering and beating them on the map. Local leaderboards will also be part of the affair. Another aspect of NBA All-World will be some sort of location-based storytelling elements tied to the hometowns of NBA stars.
Niantic’s Senior Producer Marcus Matthews has called the game’s theme, “turning the real world into a basketball theme park.” He added, “Now, places and objects in the real world will become video game items; the convenience store near you has become a location to pick up stamina for your NBA player, the sporting goods store around the corner is the place to pick up the latest brand name shoe to customize your players.”
Despite its many other augmented reality projects, Pokemon Go remains the biggest hit to have come out of Niantic’s stables. After its somewhat shaky launch in 2016, the game had garnered over 147 million monthly active users by 2018. And by 2019, it had grabbed over a billion global downloads.
Folks interested in NBA All-World can pre-register for it right now to be informed first when it arrives.