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Hunt Zombies Instead of Pokémon with AR Game Based on the Walking Dead

Aug 30, 2017 04:58 PM

Niantic pioneered location-based augmented reality gaming with Ingress and popularized it with Pokémon Go, but others have attempted to replicate the model without reaching the level of success that Niantic has garnered.

Cable network AMC may have cracked Niantic's formula with a mobile game based on its flagship series, The Walking Dead.

A highly-dramatized trailer for The Walking Dead: Our World promises a mix of location-based AR gaming and first-person shooter. Instead of finding Pokémon in the real world to fight other Pokémon, players battle with zombies, or "walkers" in the parlance of the show. The trailer depicts players picking up weapons in parks and shops to combat hordes of walkers, with characters from the show appearing as allies in the fight against the undead.

The Walking Dead: Our World combines location-based AR gaming with first-person survival shooter.

The secret sauce could be the intellectual property. Pokémon has maintained popularity as a gaming franchise for more than 20 years. Others have adapted the gaming model, but have struggled without a bankable brand.

Likewise, The Walking Dead has numbers on its side, as it has maintained high ratings throughout its run. While game adaptations for TV and film franchises have a famously spotted record, the sh can leverage advertising time to draw downloads.

If the trailer is accurate, players will cooperate with other real-life players while non-playable characters assist in the fight.

Developer Next Games previously licensed the franchise for The Walking Dead: No Man's Land, which is ranked number 90 in the App Store among strategy games and racked up between 10 and 50 million downloads on the Play Store.

The forthcoming game will also be available for the two dominant mobile operating systems. While a release date has not been revealed, one might surmise that the game could release concurrently with the latest season of the series, which premieres on Oct. 22.

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Cover image via AMC

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