With Campfire, the publisher of Pokemon Go offers players to connect in the real world via messaging and a social network. An application that could promote real encounters between trainers…
The excitement around Pokémon Go never ends! It must be said that since 2016, the mobile game has brought together more than 150 million trainers worldwide. They continue to relentlessly scour the surroundings to capture new creatures and compete in tournaments using augmented reality – a technology that superimposes 3D elements on images of the real environment. To continue to further blur the line between reality and virtuality, the Niantic studio is preparing to launch a new application, Campfire, to offer players a way to communicate and organize meetings in the real world.
Campfire wasn’t designed as a game, but rather as a social network, including group messaging, content sharing, and location-based features. Of course, the interface is compatible with Pokémon Go and other studio games, which will join the application later. An interesting idea since it develops the communication side of these games, which strangely have not been developed more than that.
Campfire: bringing players together in the real world
Campfire presents itself, at its launch, as a dynamic map of the surroundings which displays the actions and activities of its friends and other players taking place there. Events, such as Pokemon Go’s famous Raids and Arenas, are also reported. The player also has the possibility of joining communities – if they will not be numerous at the moment, others will be added later. The application is equipped with a messaging service, for private exchanges as well as with others, in which it is possible to share photos, its position or that of events with others in real time – a bit like in WhatsApp. The application also wants to be a vector of new encounters, since the user can see who is playing around him. “We can’t wait to see the different ways you’ll use Campfire to expand what has always been at the heart of Niantic’s business: real-world connections. “, said Niantic in a statement. A possibility that makes some say that Campfire could become a kind of Tinder for Pokémon lovers… After being tested in beta, Campfire will be launched in Germany this Saturday to July on the occasion of Pokémon GO Fest in Berlin, then with players from other countries over the next few months.
The launch of Campfire comes as the studio is experiencing major difficulties. In effect, Bloomberg recently revealed that four projects have been canceled internally and that Niantic is set to part ways with 85-90 members of its teams. “A period of economic turbulence” for the publisher, as noted by its CEO, John Hanke, in an internal email. It must be said that the game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, despite the success of the saga and its huge fan base, failed to find its audience when it launched in 2019, as did the titles based on Pikmin – a video game – and Catan – the famous board game. Perhaps the release of Campfire will be an opportunity to rekindle the enthusiasm around the studio’s augmented reality games?