Niantic announces new Transformers mobile game is in the works

The company behind Pokemon GO is now creating an immersive mobile game for the Transformers franchise.

Transformers: Heavy Metal was recently announced and is slated for release in Fall 2021. This is a big step for Niantic, who is known for their work on Ingress, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and the very popular Pokemon GO. Not much is known about the game, but it looks to offer a similar experience to Pokemon GO. Here is what has been revealed so far.

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Creators of Pokemon GO makes new exciting game revolving around Transformers

In Tranformers: Heavy Metal, the player will work alongside the Guardian Network, a team of humans dedicated to assisting the Autobots. Players will then get the opportunity to battle the Decepticons.

This game will feature augmented reality, similar to Pokemon GO. Some screenshots of the upcoming game were released, showing some Transformers duking it out by real life roads. People at Niantic have stated that Transformers is a perfect franchise to bring to augmented reality. CEO John Hanke said that “battling and interacting with giant robots in the real world is an amazing experience.

This new creation from Niantic looks to have all the fan favorite Transformers that have been adored over the years. Screenshots that were revealed showed Bumblebee fighting a group of decepticons including Skywarp. Another shows Bumblebee in a boss fight versus Shadow Striker. There isn’t much information regarding which other characters will be in the game, but it’s not a big stretch of the imagination to expect Megatron and Optimus Prime to appear.

Little is known yet of the battle mechanics. There are rumors, though, that it will be turn-based combat. In the screenshot featuring Bumblebee, a large tower resembling a gym from Pokemon GO can be seen in the background. This could indicate a gym-like system in Transformers: Heavy Metal.

Phil Hong, Executive Producer, wrote a blog about the game and he stated, “In thinking about franchises that would be incredible to bring to life in AR, Transformers was a no-brainer. This will be a Transformers game unlike any other, an AR game where you’ll get to team up with the likes of Bumblebee and the Autobots in the real world, powered by the Niantic Lightship platform.”