Nintendo and Niantic are teaming up again for an AR 'Pikmin' game

A few years ago, Nintendo and Niantic Labs combined to create Pokémon Go, sparking an augmented reality gaming mania that swept the globe. That craze has ebbed, but now they're going to try again with a game based on Nintendo's Pikmin franchise, which is a series of puzzle games originally created by Shigeru Miyamoto. We don't know much about the title yet, but it's seemingly fitness-focused, to "include gameplay activities to encourage walking and make walking more delightful."

According to Niantic COO Megan Quinn, Niantic is Nintendo's exclusive partner for real-world AR apps, and the game will arrive later this year. This is the first game produced by Niantic Tokyo Studio, and according to Nintendo's press release, is the first in a series of titles the two will develop together. Niantic Tokyo Studio head Tatsuo Nomura said in a tweet that it's an "unusual" game and it won't be called Pikmin Go.

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