A year ago, Pokemon Go and Ingress studio Niantic announced a new MMOARG not attached to an existing IP: Peridot. The pitch was that it would involve “caring for, raising, and breeding adorable one-of-a-kind creatures in your hands,” which you might notice is… basically what Pokemon Go already does. And Niantic insists that POGO is doing great, even as skepticism and boycotts mount.
In any case, Peridot has formally rolled out to iOS and Android devices today, no more beta hoop-jumping or region-fibbing required.
“We’ve spent the last few years working hard to create a one-of-a-kind, magical experience entirely in AR, and we’re so excited to finally be able to share it with the world. In Peridot, each creature (we call them Dots for short) is totally unique, which means the companion you’ll get when you start playing for the first time will be unlike any other Dot in the world. As you play, you’ll nurture a deep bond with these digital pets just like you would with a real one. Pet, play fetch, feed, teach them tricks, explore, dress them up, and capture charming photos and videos together. But that’s just the start. Once Dots are old enough, Keepers can work together to hatch a new generation of Dots and diversify the species! With our Perigenetics system, each Dot is procedurally generated with 100% unique DNA, resulting in countless variations of creature looks. The number of variations surpasses the number of stars in the universe or grains of sand on all the Earth’s beaches (2.3 ✕ 10^24, in case you were wondering!).”
MOP’s Massively on the Go columnist, Andrew, who usually covers POGO, Niantic, and the MMOARG industry at length, is currently on hiatus from covering Niantic this month as protests against the company’s handling of POGO continue to ripple across the community. However, he has previously written about the dangers of Niantic copypasting Pokemon Go’s monetization and security as well as alienating The Pokemon Company by attempting to clone and compete with their joint game – and that’s assuming it even takes off at all.
