We already knew that Pokemon Go was due to get multiplayer battles sometime next year. But Niantic’s plans for playing the hit AR game with friends go further than that.
Today the company announced new multiplayer integration for the game, codenamed Buddy Adventure. Rather than battling, this is a shared AR experience in which players can enjoy taking care of their partner Pokemon together. You’ll be able to interact with your own Pokemon through the AR camera, but also see other players interacting with theirs.
It’s not clear if players will be able to interact with other people’s Pokemon. That said, this sounds like a nice way to build on the community aspect of Pokemon Go, which often has groups of players banding together to explore the outside world and catch new critters together.
In a new blog Niantic says this integration will support crossplay between iOS and Android. It also says this will be the “first ever multiplayer integration” for the game (aside from the limited trainer battling, we assume), suggesting this could arrive before multiplayer battles. Later on, the company also states it will be arriving “in the months ahead.”
In late October Niantic said the Pokemon Go Battle League would be arriving in early 2020.
Elsewhere, Niantic just hosted a competition to highlight new use cases of its AR platform. It will also be bringing sponsored locations to small and medium businesses soon, so expect to start seeing a lot more Pokemon Go events pop up around you.
Are you looking forward to Pokemon Go multiplayer? Let us know in the comments below!
