Niantic has taken to social media to announce their newest augmented reality game, NBA All-World. The officially licensed title will add a digital spin on basketball, bringing it to life in “all new ways.”

NBA All-World was announced just before Niantic also revealed they’ll be shutting down a few of their other projects. This included the soft-released Transformers: Heavy Metal, and a few games that we’ve only heard of in codenames, like “Hamlet”.

It’s a shame we’ll never see the projects come to fruition, but hopefully, it’s a positive! This allows the company to redirect their resources to the games they’re currently running, and really nail their key projects—All-World included.

Whilst there hasn’t been a proper gameplay reveal just yet, Niantic did release screenshots—which are available below.

This is an officially-licensed game, and aims to create an all-new sporting experience for NBA fans to enjoy. From what we could piece together, NBA All-World gameplay consists of:

Geolocation-based gameplay, where the real world is turned into a basketball theme park. Instead of exploring your parks to find Pokémon, you’ll meet established NBA stars.

For example, the likes of James Harden and Chris Paul are on the game’s roster. The screenshots shared also showcase Steph Curry and Draymond Green. You’ll be able to collect these players to add to your squad.

Fashion also plays a huge role. You’ll be able to collect gear and new sneakers to customize your characters and also boost your squad’s stats. This will help them perform better.

The game will also feature plenty of basketball-related mini-games for you to play through. For example, Niantic has mentioned that the three-point contest will make an appearance.

Instead of PokéStops, players in NBA All-World will find basketball courts and sporting goods stores to get new gear to flex. This game is being developed with NBA fans and casual gamers in mind.

If you’re a hardcore fan of NBA 2K, All-World probably won’t be the hyper-competitive realistic game you want. However, it could be good plain fun, and you get to 1v1 your favorite NBA players in your own streets!

NBA All-World currently has no set release date, but is aiming for the NBA 2022-2023 Season. Niantic has already confirmed it’ll go through their usual soft-launch release process on the game’s official website.

The game is being co-developed by HypGames, too, in partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA). HypGames has years of experience as a mobile game developer, specializing in sports-focused titles.

You can read the official announcement press release here. The game’s Senior Producer, Marcus Matthews, has also written a blog post regarding the reveal. It seems like he’s genuinely passionate about the game, and the collision between the virtual world and sports.

If you want to stay up to date with all things Niantic and augmented reality gaming, follow us on Twitter! We’ve also got a range of other gaming articles you can check out.

By Camellia Hao Ren

Camellia Hao Ren is an Australian journalist and editor. When they aren't writing, they are usually playing games or reading.

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