During the recent 10th anniversary celebrations of Kojima Productions, Hideo Kojima, along with Niantic Spatial CEO John Hanke, have announced a partnership between the two companies. The partnership invovles the development of a new game that will make use of Nantic Spatial’s technology to “bring Hideo Kojima’s iconic storytelling into the real world,” according to the announcement. This partnership was announced with a teaser video, which you can check out below.
While we can’t yet tell what kind of game exactly will be born out of this partnership between Kojima Productions and Niantic Spatial, considering the latter company’s history, it will likely be an AR-based title similar to what we’ve seen in the past with games like Ingress and Pokemon Go. The announcement places an emphasis on the storytelling chops of Kojima Productions, and the studio’s desire to expand its storytelling into new mediums “beyond traditional gaming”.
“At Niantic Spatial, we’re building a living model of the world that people and machines can talk to, creating a new canvas for real-world storytelling and interaction,” said Hanke during the announcement. “We are delighted to be working with Kojima Productions to explore what our combined creativity and innovation can accomplish for new and existing fans.”
The teaser video that was released as part of the announcement has an emphasis with real-world people moving around in various settings. These people are often met with AR-based visuals. This, paired with the tone set by the soundtrack, could indicate some kind of relationship between this project and the Death Stranding universe. However, this hasn’t yet been confirmed by either company as of yet. “The future starts today,” notes the video at the end.
Kojima himself spoke about the project during the anniversary event, discussing his desire to make use of Niantic Spatial’s technology to create a new experience. He also spoke about wanting to be liberated of screens when it comes to creating games.
“We’re always creating games in the screen, even smartphones or whatever, and we want to liberate that, so your normal real life, [what] if there was art and entertainment in your everyday life?” said Kojima through an interpreter. “I thought that was brilliant and I was always thinking about that. So looking at [Niantic’s] technology I thought this was possible so we kind of teamed up here.”
“I can’t really speak about details yet, but if you’re climbing a mountain there’s still entertainment there. To give a wild example, it’s like the real Death Stranding, in the real world, where you can connect with people, or connect with the actual environment there in your city. “Previously it was like virtual reality, but this time I’m thinking about connecting with the real environment.”
Earlier this year, Niantic’s licensed game development business was acquired by Scopely in a deal valued at $3.5 billion. As a result of this deal, Niantic Spatial was a new company spun-off from the original Niantic by founder Hanke, and has maintained its focus on being what it calls a “geospatial AI company”.
