Pokémon GO creator Niantic has announced an official NBA game called NBA All-World, where players will walk around the real world meeting basketball stars instead of pocket monsters or Pikmin.
The game looks visually similar to Pokémon Go, and Niantic revealed a handful of screenshots (below) alongside a brief reveal trailer. In them, the player can be seen encountering Nikola Jokić and Draymond Green.
PokéStop equivalent in-game locations will be found at basketball courts and sporting goods stores, among other places, and players can pick up new items and upgrades for their NBA or blacktop games, or just cosmetic items to spruce up their avatar.
The likes of Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum can also be seen outside of main world map, likely showing off this game’s version of gyms from Pokémon Go, where players “battle” against NBA stars in basketball games. Marcus Matthews, who worked on the original NBA 2K and is senior producer of NBA All-World, said in a blog post that “Niantic has been hard at work to forge a new type of sports game”.
NBA All-World “blends the real world with 1-on-1 basketball action, collecting, fashion and more,” he added. “Our development partner in Orlando, HypGames, has been stellar at leveraging their sports gaming expertise to deliver a fantastic experience, one that will appeal to both casual and core hoops fans alike.”
No release date was offered alongside the announcement but players can pre-register for a chance to play the game ahead of its full launch.
The game is certainly a far cry from traditional basketball games. The mainline NBA 2K franchise aims to simulate the professional basketball experience, while NBA 2K Playgrounds is more chaotic, arcade fun.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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