Last month Catan board game said in a conference that the company was working on an “upcoming massively multiplayer location-based game” (with no mention of Niantic). Called Catan: World Explorers, they noted that it “transforms the entire Earth into one giant game of CATAN”. After the announcement, the official website of Catan was launched and some Reddit users found that the website had the same source code as Niantic.
The official Terms and conditions, and Privacy Policy links were connecting to the official website of Niantic. These links are proof that Niantic is working along with Catan to launch their official AR game. TechCrunch has confirmed from Niantic that the company is working on the project. They did not reveal much, but they have confirmed that the next Catan game is being built on Niantic’s Real World Platform.
It seems Niantic has opened its massive database of real-world locations, the game engine, and the server architecture that makes the whole ‘real-world game’ experience work for the third parties after the grand success of Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite games.
Catan has not revealed much about their game but according to the official website of Catan:
- The main gameplay screen, at least at this early stage, looks a lot like Pokémon GO and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. Same top-down map view, avatar in the bottom left, etc.
- There are options to construct the roads, settlement expansion and trade resources with other players and NPCs
- The landmarks that serve as Pokéstops/Gyms in Pokémon Go or Inns/Fortresses in Potter will act as locations to “collect resources and build settlements” here.