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Niantic's 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' Augmented Reality Game Shutting Down
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I believe the main vision (pun intended) of the full implementation of AR is through eyeglass like the rumored Apple Glasses. Then, AR will have the groundwork laid out and will really be the next BIG thing.
AR just doesn't seem compelling through a phone. Through glasses, it seems a pretty exciting notion. But as has been pointed out but another poster: the blame for this failure might not have been the AR.
I never got the craze of the Pokémon Go days nor any similar other for that matter, for me personally that is.
That should be not allowed, similar to how the App Store rules are being brought up against Notability for taking some features that users paid for to a subscription based model
That should be not allowed, similar to how the App Store rules are being brought up against Notability for taking some features that users paid for to a subscription based model
Pokémon go is only successful because it is a Pokémon game, not because it is AR. Niantic is not a good company and I believe they will be the reason Pokémon go shuts down. They are only concerned with collecting data, taking in profit(no matter the expense to the playerbase) and forcing AR.
Niantic only has 1 game they have just skinned them as Pokémon and Harry Potter. It’s really just ingress, which I would bet has less players then HPWU.
Niantic only has 1 game they have just skinned them as Pokémon and Harry Potter. It’s really just ingress, which I would bet has less players then HPWU.
This is likely something the company is doing mainly for the benefit of the developers, who worked so hard on the cancelled next release.
What "brand" are you talking about? If you mean "Harry Potter" (which makes millions for JK Rowling and her publisher), the software company that makes the game gets no benefit from enhancing a brand in which they have no ownership stake.
A mobile game was never really going to do anything for the brand. More likely the company paid to use the license and are trying to find ways to recoup their investment. Whilst Pokémon Go was an important brand exercise, it was produced by Nintendo who owned the product. This is just a spin off game that does nothing to enhance the overall HP world.
In the MD/DC/VA area there are a lot of PoGO and Ingress players. I went from PoGO to Ingress so I could add more places in PoGO. Now my newer community is full of in game locations for kids and adults to use.
I don't play the game myself, but my general understanding from talking to people who still play is that most people turn the AR off. It doesn't seem to add anything to the gameplay and (I suspect) it actually distracts from the game.
"Investing money in a game" sounds like terrible financial advice. Trying hard to educate my kids about these schemes.
A shame but not too surprising, I tried it for a bit and just couldn't get into it. It's... I can't think of any way to put it than boring. I wouldn't say HP has a lack of fans compared to Pokemon, it's pretty huge (a minority have gone off it because of some political/Twitter stuff around Rowling but that hasn't put much of a dent in it) but it's not a story that easily fits into the Pokemon Go / Ingress format. It feels like it's been shoehorned into the format just because "let's try and smoosh these popular things together because popular+popular=money" and they've found it doesn't add up after all.
I could see Pokemon Go going a similar way if they're not too careful or if they remain too hypervigilant over covid. The game on its own is quite dull, it was good early on when they were catching up with the main series but nowadays they very rarely release new mons so you just see the same stuff all the time. I played it avidly until early 2020 and then lost interest - the main interest for me was social, you had a raiding group that got together in person regularly but as soon as covid and remote raid passes came along everyone just stayed at home, even long after lockdown was released and it was established that it's quite safe outdoors. People are lazy, and if you keep remote raiding indefinitely, they won't go anywhere. I can understand why they brought the concept in and not wanting to encourage people being social when they're meant to distance, but it's outstayed its necessity, you don't need to be scared of catching covid off your own shadow outdoors any more and the ongoing and unnecessary remote aspect ruins the experience IMO.
Same with community days, it was fun heading out trying to 3 good shiny versions whatever the day was focusing on, chatting with each other as you wander round, showing off how many you've managed etc. Same deal, everyone just sits at home and does it now. Boring. The social aspect isn't the same across Messenger.
Ingress is still good, as long as you don't live where I am, where someone on the opposition who is "unemployed but well supported" just drives around all day every day keeping giant fields over the area, preventing either team from playing. But Ingress doesn't have them rolling in money like Pogo does.
I could see Pokemon Go going a similar way if they're not too careful or if they remain too hypervigilant over covid. The game on its own is quite dull, it was good early on when they were catching up with the main series but nowadays they very rarely release new mons so you just see the same stuff all the time. I played it avidly until early 2020 and then lost interest - the main interest for me was social, you had a raiding group that got together in person regularly but as soon as covid and remote raid passes came along everyone just stayed at home, even long after lockdown was released and it was established that it's quite safe outdoors. People are lazy, and if you keep remote raiding indefinitely, they won't go anywhere. I can understand why they brought the concept in and not wanting to encourage people being social when they're meant to distance, but it's outstayed its necessity, you don't need to be scared of catching covid off your own shadow outdoors any more and the ongoing and unnecessary remote aspect ruins the experience IMO.
Same with community days, it was fun heading out trying to 3 good shiny versions whatever the day was focusing on, chatting with each other as you wander round, showing off how many you've managed etc. Same deal, everyone just sits at home and does it now. Boring. The social aspect isn't the same across Messenger.
Ingress is still good, as long as you don't live where I am, where someone on the opposition who is "unemployed but well supported" just drives around all day every day keeping giant fields over the area, preventing either team from playing. But Ingress doesn't have them rolling in money like Pogo does.
The app developers could have ‘made the gameplay more fun’ earlier on. Maybe this could have brought in more players.
What I really want is a Fatal Frame type game where you take pictures of ghosts that appear on your phone but not on real life. There's one I found, but it's relatively crappy in quality (the ghosts are flat)
If they make the core part of the game free (i.e. no recharge time) and monetize by selling "story packs" and partner up with venues to have a location based event and have a cut from the venue.
They can also provide a mini store for external content creators to add additional ghost assets.
A fast follow upgrade would allow multiple people in the LAN to discover each other and do ghost hunting in the house for free. And using GPS mode with friends to hunt for ghosts outside (this would be a paid add-on since this requires an externally run service)
Now if Niantic was involved, then they can do more things that utilize GPS location.
If they make the core part of the game free (i.e. no recharge time) and monetize by selling "story packs" and partner up with venues to have a location based event and have a cut from the venue.
They can also provide a mini store for external content creators to add additional ghost assets.
A fast follow upgrade would allow multiple people in the LAN to discover each other and do ghost hunting in the house for free. And using GPS mode with friends to hunt for ghosts outside (this would be a paid add-on since this requires an externally run service)
Now if Niantic was involved, then they can do more things that utilize GPS location.
Pokemon Go losing steam? The 2020 Revenue was the most ever. It's earned more revenue every year.
I know a few who did. Initially because it was the only way to submit Pokestops, but they ended up liking it.
