What you need to know
- Pikmin Bloom is a game developed in a partnership between Nintendo and Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go.
- The game is rolling out to users in Singapore and Australia today, with more countries to follow in the coming days.
- Previously, the two companies announced that they had teamed up to work on a Pikmin game that was set to release in 2021.
We've known about the continued partnership between Niantic and Nintendo and the development of a Pikmin AR game. What we didn't know is that the announcement of the name would also coincide with the game's release.
According to a video released on YouTube Tuesday evening, which you can watch below, Niantic CEO John Hanke introduced the game, called Pikmin Bloom, and announced it would start rolling out to phones starting today. According to Eurogamer, the rollout will begin in Singapore and Australia.
Hanke and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto also detailed how it'll work. It's similar to Pokémon Go in that walking around in the real world will correspond with actions in the game, but that's where a lot of the similarities end.
While Pokémon Go had cooperative elements that had you interacting with people in the real world, that came down a lot to gyms and some power-ups. Interaction is inherent in Pikmin Bloom. As you and people around you walk and plant flowers, a garden will bloom. It'll also have a feature where you can log your memories from your day.
"Collectively, all the players of Pikmin Bloom will literally be tranforming the world together," Hanke said in the video. He continued, "I'm a huge believer in the power of walking and that's why at niantic, we want to inspire people to go outside, explore their neighborhoods, and have fun at the same time... We think pikmin are the perfect creatures to help."
Nintendo previously confirmed back in March that it had teamed up with Niantic to work on a Pikmin AR game, which would be the first in a series of partnerships between the two companies. Obviously, the two had worked together on the successful Pokémon Go.
The name of the game leaked earlier today after users noticed it had been added to the iOS Test Flight app, which allows for beta testing.
