Category: Next Games

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The Walking Dead: Our World Adds new Missions to Celebrate Season Nine of the TV Series

Augmented reality (AR) videogame The Walking Dead: Our World launched a few months ago, bringing the TV series to life like never before. Season nine of AMC’s The Walking Dead is due to premiere soon and to celebrate that fact Next Games will be releasing exclusive missions to coincide.

The Walking Dead Our World - Screenshot

Following the premiere of each new episode of The Walking Dead, the AR videogame will feature new and exclusive missions, themed after the new episodes. Upon completion of these missions players will be guaranteed TV show characters as rewards, including single-encounter missions and Infestations to earn even greater prizes. New missions will become available every Monday on a weekly basis.

“We are very excited to bring the show and the mobile game together with the exclusive missions in The Walking Dead: Our World. For the duration of the season, fans can tune in to watch the show, and play all new Season 9-themed missions every week. We will let players experience the apocalypse first-hand in their everyday life and familiar surroundings and play to get their favorite show characters on their side,” said Saara Bergström, CMO, Next Games in a statement.

Compatible with iOS and Android devices, The Walking Dead: Our World is powered by Google Maps, enabling the game map to showcase the action anywhere players go, including world-famous landmarks and buildings such as the Statue of Liberty, the London Eye and Burj Khalifa.

The Walking Dead: Our World Collect_RC

“The AMC Games team can’t wait for fans to see what lies in store for their favorite characters when Season 9 of ‘The Walking Dead’ debuts this Sunday. We’ve worked with Next Games to weave upcoming events from the show into the design of the game, giving our fans a unique new platform to interact with the ‘The Walking Dead’ universe,” said Clayton Neuman, VP of Games for AMC. “We will continue to innovate and add new content to expand The Walking Dead: Our World, and the upcoming Season 9 missions are a great next step.”

Additionally, Next Games and AMC have joined forces with actors Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford) and Josh McDermitt (Eugene Porter) on a fun series of shorts titled Life after The Walking Dead. The first of which can be seen below. For any further updates to The Walking Dead: Our World, keep reading VRFocus.

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The Walking Dead: Our World Will Get New Missions After Each Season 9 Episode

The Walking Dead: Our World Will Get New Missions After Each Season 9 Episode

The Walking Dead: Our World, the location-based AR game that puts zombies into the world around you using your phone’s GPS and camera, is getting weekly mission content themed around Season 9 of AMC’s The Walking Dead TV show. New missions will release after each new episode.

According to a press release from AMC and Next Games, the missions will go live immediately after episodes air on Monday nights, beginning next week on October 8th. After completing missions (which will vary from solo encounters to group encounters) players will be able to earn guaranteed rewards, such as characters from the show.

“The AMC Games team can’t wait for fans to see what lies in store for their favorite characters
when Season 9 of ‘The Walking Dead’ debuts this Sunday,” said Clayton Neuman, VP of Games for AMC in a prepared statement. “We’ve worked with Next Games to weave upcoming events from the show into the design of the game, giving our fans a unique new platform to interact with the ‘The Walking Dead’ universe. We will continue to innovate and add new content to expand The Walking Dead: Our World, and the upcoming Season 9 missions are a great next step.”

When we published our initial impressions of The Walking Dead AR back in July, we commended it for nailing a good balance between content that you can do from home versus content that requires actively seeking it out in the real world. The AR mode could use some work, but given the limitations of current technology it’s not bad. Especially since it automatically records footage for you to share.

Connecting the two universes together is a great move to keep fans of the show coming back to the game across the entire stretch of Season 9. We’d love to see more IPs promote across mediums like this.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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The Walking Dead: Our World Reveals Revenue Success

When it comes to augmented reality (AR) videogames, most people will immediately think of Niantic’s Pokemon Go. That may be set to change, as initial revenue numbers for Next Games’ The Walking Dead: Our World reveal a promising start.

According to a market analysis from Sensor Tower, The Walking Dead: Our World has been downloaded over 1.7 million times, and has reached $8 million (USD) in just 55 days.

The Walking Dead: Our World Google Pixel

The full analysis shows that the US market have contributed the most towards this revenue stream, with 40% of worldwide spending on the title coming from the USA. Germany comes in a distant second, with 14% of revenue coming from German players.

The Walking Dead: Our World functions in a similar way to Pokemon Go, allowing players to see zombies lurking around the real-world streets, where they can be fought either solo or as part of a friends group. There are weekly missions to complete which offer specific rewards, and in addition to killing zombies, players can also rescue survivors and set out to collect character or weapon cards.

The title is powered by Google Maps, which lets the action be specific to your real-world location, even featuring famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty of the London Eye.

Though the $8 million figure in less than two months is impressive, some critics have pointed out that The Walking Dead: Our World has a smaller potential audience, since the level of violence will make it less accessible for younger or more sensitive players. Others have indicated that the level of The Walking Dead-related media currently available risks putting the fan base at saturation point.

The Walking Dead Our World - Screenshot

The Walking Dead: Our World could be compared to a similar mobile AR title, Jurassic World Alive, which has amassed 7.6 million downloads by its second month of release, showing $25 million in revenue by its third month.

For future coverage of The Walking Dead: Our World and other AR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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Fight the Undead in Your Neighbourhood With The Walking Dead: Our World Today

Ever wanted to chase zombies round your local neighbourhood in a similar fashion to all those Pokemon GO trainers out there? Today, Next Games and AMC will allow The Walking Dead fans to do just that with the launch of augmented reality (AR) title The Walking Dead: Our World for iOS and Android devices.

The Walking Dead: Our World Google Pixel

Players will now be able to jump into The Walking Dead universe being able to play alongside the characters from the TV series, including Daryl, Michonne and Rick, who each fight in their own specialised way.

The Walking Dead: Our World is powered by Google Maps, enabling the game map to showcase the action anywhere they go, including world-famous landmarks and buildings such as the Statue of Liberty, the London Eye and Burj Khalifa.

“I’m proud of team Next Games for creating this incredibly ambitious game that offers players an immersive and deeply personal experience with AMC’s The Walking Dead universe. Combined with both a technically and creatively unique AR and location execution, this game truly takes a fresh approach to the genre. I’m excited to let the world play our game today and can confidently say that this will be a day to remember for Next Games,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Next Games in a statement.

The Walking Dead Our World - Screenshot

The Walking Dead: Our World allows players to fight the zombie hordes solo or team up with friends to compete in weekly missions, showcasing their skills to claim recognition and rewards. Other features include rescuing survivors, collecting character and weapon cards, plus there’s even a ‘couch play’ option so you can really play anywhere.

“The Walking Dead has some of the most passionate fans on the planet,” said Lyle Underkoffler, SVP Digital Media for AMC. “We’re so excited to partner with Next Games for the second time to offer our fans this truly unique and immersive AR experience — the chance to live out their apocalyptic fantasies in the real world, and fight for survival side-by-side with their favorite characters from this iconic series.  We’re looking forward to seeing our fans’ stories come to life in a way that was never before possible.”

The title is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, free-of-charge, in 153 countries globally today. For any further updates from Next Games, keep reading VRFocus.

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Release Date for The Walking Dead AR Title Revealed

Last year TV network AMC revealed it was working with videogame developer Next Games to develop one of its biggest properties, zombie drama The Walking Dead, into a new location-tracking augmented reality (AR) title. It has now been revealed when exactly fans of the franchise can expect to see the app arrive.

The Walking Dead: Our World lets players wander around real world locations, using their smartphone cameras to spot Walkers and then fight them off using commands on the screen.

The Walking Dead Our World - Screenshot

Players can also expect to interact with characters from the show like Rick, Michonne and Daryl. There will be ‘stashes’ available to collect, which will contain items that will aid in the fight against the zombies. It has not yet been revealed exactly what those stashes will contain, but most speculation leans towards weapons or tools.

To aid in the fight, characters from the show can be recruited and levelled up and shelters can be built to act as safe havens from the Walker threat. There will be weekly challenges to complete which will offer special rewards for regular players.

The Walking Dead: Our World is scheduled for release on 12th July, 2018, so fans don’t have that long to wait until the title will be available to download on both Android and iOS devices. It’s not yet been confirmed if that app will be free or paid for, and the presence of microtransactions is also yet to be confirmed.

It’s also currently unknown how integral the AR is to the experience, and if it can be disabled as in Pokemon Go so lower spec smartphones can take part.

The Walking Dead Our World - Key Art

A quirky teaser trailer has been released by Next Games showing footage of people who look like they are capturing photos, but are in fact taking down zombies. This trailer is available to view below.

For further news on The Walking Dead: Our World, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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The Walking Dead: Our World to Integrate Real World Locations From Google Maps

The Walking Dead TV series is still very popular, sprouting all sorts of additional content including several videogames. There’s even an augmented reality (AR) experience coming from Next Games, originally announced last year and demoed to the public for the first time at New York Comic Con (NYCC). Today, the studio – alongside AMC – have revealed that The Walking Dead: Our World will be powered by Google Maps.

The Walking Dead: Our World Combat NonAR

The partnership will see world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, and Burj Khalifa, integrated into the videogame, making exploring surroundings even more interactive and immersive.

“We are excited to partner with Google Maps, inarguably the best maps product in the world. With Google Maps, we can count on providing the most up-to-date location data, meaning that when new buildings or roads are built, we’ll have them in our game. This enables us to create an immersive experience, tied to the players’ location. Google Maps’ unrivalled amount of location data, covering world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, Burj Khalifa and India Gate, makes exploring your surroundings a breathtaking experience,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Next Games in a statement.

The Walking Dead: Our World will allow players to fight walkers on the streets, in the park, on their sofa, wherever and whenever they want, alongside characters from the show, including Rick, Daryl, and Michonne. While Google Maps will provide the most up-to-date location data, meaning that when new buildings or roads are built, they’ll be in the videogame.

The Walking Dead: Our World Collect_RC

“We’ve spent the last decade building a comprehensive map of the real world,” adds Clementine Jacoby, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs. “We’re excited to be able to enable companies like Next Games to leverage our data to build rich experiences for their users to enjoy.”

The Walking Dead: Our World is slated to launch globally in Q2 2018. Eager fans can today pre-register via Google Play for selected markets, go to www.thewalkingdeadourworld.com to sign up. Google will also be demoing the AR title at its booth during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2018 next week. For any further updates for The Walking Dead: Our World, keep reading VRFocus.

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Next Games Brings The Walking Dead AR To NYCC

Fans of hit TV series The Walking Dead have been eagerly awaiting the chance to get their hands on the upcoming The Walking Dead: Our World augmented reality (AR) app since it was announced by developer Next Games earlier this year. Attendees at the famous New York Comic Con may soon get the chance.

The Walking Dead: Our World was inspired by the phenomenally successful Pokemon Go, following a similar structure of location-based gameplay with AR elements, though with a considerably darker take on the concept.

Next Games have teamed up with Lionsgate to showcase The Walking Dead: Our World, which will demo to the public for the first time at New York Comic Con. Fans will be able to get their hands on the title, which is planned to feature a mixture of objects and characters from the TV show whilst taking advantage of features present in the real world.

Not much information is currently available on exactly how The Walking Dead: Our World will play, so Comic Con attendees who make it to the Lionsgate booth will be getting a surprise as they get the world’s first look at the app.

Next Games previously worked on The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, and as part of the company’s appearance at the Lionsgate booth, representatives will be talking about how they integrated season 8 of The Walking Dead TV show into the videogame story.

New York Comic Con will take place from 5th-8th October, 2017 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in New York City. Next Games will be appearing at the Lionsgate booth, #210.

VRFocus will bring you further information on The Walking Dead: Our World as it becomes available.

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The Walking Dead to Get Augmented Reality Videogame

Hit TV series The Walking Dead will soon be bringing the undead into augmented reality (AR) according to TV network AMC, where the show is broadcast.

According to a statement from AMC, the AR mobile title will be modelled on Pokemon Go, featuring AR elements and location-based gameplay, only will obviously be aimed at a much older audience.

A trailer for The Walking Dead AR videogame, titled The Walking Dead: Our World, is mostly something of a teaser, not featuring any gameplay, but rather offering an aspirational idea of what the title will feel like to play. The trailer features players fighting off undead in various locations such as a hospital and a convenience store, using weapons such as guns, grenades and even swords. This early trailer also features characters from the show such as Rick, Daryl and Michonne to aid the players.

AMC have tapped Finnish developers Next Games to work on the title, who also developed previous The Walking Dead mobile title, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land.

A statement by AMC said: “The Walking Dead: Our World will enable players to fully immerse themselves into the action of the hit TV show by blending digital objects, such as characters and other game elements, with the players’ own environment.”

Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen said: “The fans love how the show encourages you to ask, ‘What would I do in a zombie apocalypse?’, and in this game we aim to let players explore this hypothetical in a way they’ve never experienced before. AR enables players to live through the fight for survival in a whole new way in their familiar surroundings.”

There has been no release date set, but plans are for The Walking Dead: Our World to be available on iOS and Android. The trailer is available to view below. Further information and updates can be found on the Next Games blog.

VRFocus will bring you further information on The Walking Dead: Our World as it becomes available.