NBA All World is Niantic’s next Pokemon Go style augmented reality game

Niantic creates a very specific type of game that combines real-world exploration with GPS-based augmented reality mechanics. It has original games like Ingress and the next Peridot, but its biggest hit has been the established property, Pokemon. He even announced a game based on Transformers last year. After Ingress, all of Niantic’s games were based in some kind of fictional world, but its next partnership and the game borrow from reality. NBA All World is an NBA-based Pokemon Go style game. To quote Niantic’s senior producer in All World, Marcus Matthews, the game is “The NBA Lifestyle Meets the Real World Metaverse,” although Niantic has apparently developed its own definition of what the term “metaverse” means.

All World is functionally similar to Niantic’s other augmented reality games in which players explore the real world to collect items, be the best player on the local field, and play against NBA players (whose similarities will appear in the game). It will feature authentic NBA music, merchandise and footwear. For example, Matthews said that a nearby convenience store will become a place you need to visit to gather stamina for your player, and a nearby sporting goods store will be a place to collect the latest designer shoes to customize your team.

Matthews has a history of working on sports games, including the very first 2K basketball and soccer games on Dreamcast. His step for NBA All World is to take the video game basketball experience and move it outdoors. Matthews referred to when he was a kid and went to the park to play basketball with friends and claim bragging rights, and how he hopes NBA All World can offer a similar experience.

As for the actual gameplay, Matthews cites his time working on the original 2K sports Dreamcast games. While developing those games, his team looked ahead and didn’t try to compare with the basketball games that were on the market. Matthews’ team is taking the same approach for NBA All World. Four pillars support the overall goal of the game. Explore the real world, customize your character, manage a team and compete with others. As you explore, you can collect items and upgrades for your player, compete against real-world players at select basketball courts, and meet NBA players on the map to play basketball. The customization is self-explanatory as you can design your characters with different looks and outfits, but you can also manage a team of players and level them up individually.

In an example shown during the presentation, we saw the player character use a custom avatar meet an NBA player and compete in a three-point shootout. The camera was centered behind a 3D model of a player on a 3D pitch and a meter appeared on the screen to climb. To successfully shoot, you need to tap the screen at the right time. If you win, you can recruit that player. It’s unclear how close this mechanic will be to Pokemon Go and whether you’ll be able to collect multiples of the same player for your team. For NBA players featured in the game, Matthews says they will play similarly to their real-world counterparts. “Professionals like Chris Paul will sound like Chris Paul. James Harden will have his steps backwards, ”says Matthews.

The main mode, however, as Matthews calls it, is to play one-on-one against real-world players. In the gameplay shown, a player was seen dribbling the ball before jumping to shoot and the meter appeared on the screen. How much control you have over the player while dribbling and moving isn’t clear yet, but it’s all tap and swipe controls – the game won’t use a virtual D-pad. “We want this to be a fast and accessible game system,” says Matthews.

Matthews confirmed that you need to be physically close to other players on the pitch in order to play. You will not be able to play online against friends in other cities. Niantic is working on a mode to be able to play against any player within a certain distance, but upon launch, you will need to go to a physical basketball court in the game’s map database to play against others. Matthews says Niantic is planning to make parks and other important play venues viable for areas that aren’t packed with fields. Optimistically, Matthews says the game may have more points of interest than Pokemon Go in the future as many outlets and stores will be integrated into the map database.

NBA’s vice president of global partnerships, Adrienne O’Keefe, was also on hand for the presentation and anticipated opportunities for the game’s overlap with NBA events. “Besides the fact that this is a new genre for sports games, there are several ways we can take the position-based nature of this game and bring it to various aspects of the NBA season,” O’Keefe said. “Integrate with NBA tentpole events, engage in location-based activities around games, whether it’s regular season or global games taking place in Tokyo, Paris and other parts of the world.”

A confusing element of Niantic’s presentation was the use of the word “metaverse”. Matthews used the term to describe the game, as did O’Keefe. This is Matthews’ response when asked what they meant by the term “metaverse” and how it related to NBA All World. “In Niantic what we observe with the metaverse is actually what we call the real world metaverse. Instead of creating the virtual world to explore, we want to superimpose our game environment on a real world map and we want to take objects and objects in the real world and places in the real world and turn them into video game objects that you can interact with and play with or against, ”said Matthews,“ So, I think virtual world games are what meta and other entities are doing, but what we’re doing is turning the real world into a metaverse. ”

O’Keefe said conversations for NBA All World began about five years ago in the wake of Pokemon Go and were started by Niantic founder John Hanke’s love of sport. “He is the creative spirit of the game,” said Matthews. Niantic didn’t have a release window for NBA All World, but you can pre-register for the game at NBAAllWorld.com.