Transformers: Heavy Metal AR game from Niantic.

[DELTAprime]

The developers that made Pokemon Go and a follow game dev based in Seatle called Very Very Spaceship are teaming up with Hasbro and Takara Tomy to make an AR game called Transformers: Heavy Metal.

It will all in likelihood be yet another franchise shoehorned into the Pokemon Go gameplay mechanics, which has become a common thing with Niantic's games.

For our members in New Zealand, you will get to play it in June, while the rest of the world will get it later this year.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/06/niantic-is-making-an-ar-transformers-game/

[Seraphim Prime]

I read elsewhere that it's basically built on what they are now calling their Lightship platform - the network of sites and data drops that they built for Ingress, then developed on to Pokemon Go and soon Harry Potter.

I think it will be interesting to hear the reviews of what the Harry Potter game is like and how distinct it is from Pokemon Go in order to assess what the TF game might be like.

I initially found Pokemon Go to be fun, but it became a bit of a time drain and increasingly got built for people who were much more advanced in the game and gave up.

[griffin]

Apparently this is now available for download and testing by those in New Zealand (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/06/25/new-transformers-heavy-metal-mobile-game-available-for-download-in-new-zealand-australia-436163).
It is supposed to have everyone else geo-blocked, but has anyone in Australia been able to download and play it?

[griffin]

Apparently this was cancelled before it made it out of the beta testing phase (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/06/29/niantics-transformers-heavy-metal-ar-mobile-game-cancelled-459572)... which seems a waste that they couldn't just release what they had completed, and just charge less for it.
I guess those in New Zealand who were able to test it out had exclusive access to it in the end, that no one else will ever get.

[griffin]

And now for those who did have access to the game or was able to download it, everything is being shut down at the end of this month (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/08/10/sunset-announced-for-transformers-heavy-metal-ar-mobile-game-463033).

[DELTAprime]

And now for those who did have access to the game or was able to download it, everything is being shut down at the end of this month (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/08/10/sunset-announced-for-transformers-heavy-metal-ar-mobile-game-463033).

This is why you shouldn't play live service games; he says as he buys more tracks and cars for iRacing.