With Pokémon Go, Niantic celebrated unprecedented success in the field of augmented reality (AR) mobile games. Now the company wants to launch its own brand with Peridot.

Instead of Nintendo's famous pocket monsters, smartphone players can search for and find even cuter fantasy creatures called Peridots in Peridot. The virtual animals from Niantic can be collected and bred. The idea of a virtual pet is reminiscent of the Tamagotchi era in the 1990s. A beta test for both Android and Apple devices is to start as early as 18 April in selected international markets. It is not known when this will happen in the German-speaking region.

Virtual pet meets real world

Peridot follows a story: After a thousand-year sleep, mythical mythical creatures awaken in our world. Confronted with the strange impressions, the animals experience a real culture shock. To cope with this overload, the cute creatures need the help of the players.

The peridots have to be nurtured and cared for. Among other things, the extraterrestrial pets have to be walked, looked after and fed. It is also advisable to mate the mythical creatures with each other to ensure the continued existence of the exotic animals.

This is possible in nests at POIs (Points of Interest) in the real world - like the Pokéstops in Pokémon Go. Niantic is proud of the fact that each animal is unique. When adult Peridots mate, properties such as the colour of the offspring's fur can be selected. The baby must be raised again by the player. The time to adulthood lasts one to three days in the real time of the gamer - depending on the intensity of the use of the game.

Peridot AR

Successes can be shared on social media

Child-friendliness is emphasised: the peridots do not die if the user takes care of them too little or not properly. Even the removal of faeces, as was once the case with the Tamagotchi, is not one of the tasks.

What could promote the success of the game: One's own experiences with the Peridot, for example when playing or searching for food in the real environment of the mobile phone owner, can be shared on social media. As with Pokémon Go, there will always be live and community events.

Source: gmx / Nintendo Connect