'Walking Dead' AR Game Powered by Google Maps Coming This Summer, Gameplay Footage Released

Ever since the announcement of The Walking Dead: Our World game last fall, publisher AMC and developer Next Games have been quiet about the title. Almost too quiet.

That silence has now been shattered with the release of a gameplay trailer (see bottom of this page) for the game. The footage confirms that the game will closely follow the Pokémon GO model for location-based AR gaming.

Next Games also disclosed that the game will be released on the App Store and Google Play in the second quarter of 2018, which is corporate-speak "by June 30" or later.

In the meantime, those attending the Game Developer Conference next week can get a closer look at the game at Google's booth, as the game will use Google's new Maps API for location-based games.

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"We are excited to partner with Google Maps, inarguably the best maps product in the world," said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, in a statement. "With Google Maps, we can count on providing the most up-to-date location data, meaning that when new buildings or roads are built, we'll have them in our game. This enables us to create an immersive experience, tied to the players' location. Google Maps' unrivalled [sic] amount of location data, covering world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, Burj Khalifa and India Gate, makes exploring your surroundings a breathtaking experience."

Other upcoming games based on the Jurassic Park and Ghostbusters franchises will also use the Google Maps API.

"We've spent the last decade building a comprehensive map of the real world," said Clementine Jacoby, the product manager for the Google Maps API. "We're excited to be able to enable companies like Next Games to leverage our data to build rich experiences for their users to enjoy."

Walking Dead fans just hope they can enjoy the game before all of the characters featured in the game are killed off on the TV show.

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Images via Next Games/YouTube