MARVEL World of Heroes is an upcoming AR mobile game from the creator of the acclaimed Pokemon GO. Niantic announced its next augmented reality title during Disney and Marvel Games Showcase event a couple of days ago.
Niantic started as an internal startup within Google before emerging as an independent development house in 2015. Soon thereafter, the studio established itself as a powerhouse in the mobile gaming sphere thanks to its patented Real World technology (subsequently renamed Lightship) that blends augmented reality game interface with real-world locations.
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For those who don’t know, Niantic’s first big breakthrough was not Pokemon GO, though it did revolutionize AR mobile games. It was Ingress that catapulted the developer to prominence. Speaking of Pokemon GO, it shattered all spending records at the time leading to springing a whole new genre. Since then, Niantic has released several AR games such as Pikmin Bloom but none of them achieved the popularity level of Pokemon GO.
However, not even Niantic has been able to achieve the same success since Pokemon GO. Take Harry Potter: Wizard Unite for example, which didn’t last long having been shut down in January 2022 not long after its June 2019 launch.
So it seems to rekindle the AR mobile gaming interest among players is going to take a special effort. On that front, the developer of MARVEL World of Heroes has their work cut out. That said, Lead Game designer Neil Melville appears optimistic about the game’s prospects as explained in the following excerpt from the announcement statement:
It has been a joy to work with this talented and passionate team in crafting a game that will let players get a taste of the Super Hero lifestyle right in their own neighborhoods. It is my goal that this game instills in its players feelings of freedom, power, curiosity, and cooperation, and will inspire them to make the world a better place. I am very excited about the character avatar system in MARVEL World of Heroes, because it gives a lot of flexibility for players to express different body types, gender expressions, and outfit customization. I can’t wait to see what kind of characters the players will create on their journey to become famous local heroes.
Adding further, senior producer Lyza Faylona said:
The best part about being a producer on MARVEL World of Heroes is I get to experience first-hand all of the awesome work by the team through the lens of both a player and game developer. Some days my world revolves around team operations, and other days it’s partnering with our creative and technology leads on upcoming features. I love MMORPGs, so I’m most excited about bringing that to the real world. To arrive at a location, view and interact with it through the lens of a Marvel Super Hero is what I’m really excited about. I can’t wait to see how players interact with these locations and form their own origin stories.
The makers also stated that MARVEL World of Heroes will utilize the multiverse setup in which players can travel across multiple alternate realities to interact with different characters with diverse stories in the same location.
The game is coming to iOS and Android devices next year. Until then, here is the first look at the gameplay in the preview video below.
