A whole series of games using the Google Maps API is arriving on mobile. We explain to you why and how it will be put in place.
The new Pokemon Go is perhaps among them. Jurassic World, The Walking Dead, Ghostbusters... location-based games are proliferating right now. The big franchises have been slow to capture the interest of the concept after the success of Nintendo and Niantic, but the wait is coming to an end. They all share a real common point: Google Maps. And the phenomenon could grow as Google will open its platform to developers, more broadly.
It's been two years since Google started receiving requests from the video game industry for their developers to use Google Maps data. A request that surprised but was easy to correlate quickly with the success of Pokemon Go. The Mountain View company started to meet studios to see what they really needed.
Concretely, Google could have been content to give access to its API and tell developers to deal with that, but the idea is to go further... The developers who will participate in this project will of course have access to the data. Real time is a prerequisite, but they will also have access to the new development software for Unity. This will make it easier to integrate map data into a game.
Finally, the most fascinating part with this new Google API is that it aims to allow the creation of new gaming experiences around real places. In Walking Dead, for example, the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty will play a role in the screenplay, but more broadly, developers will be able to transform all hotels in the real world into a rest center in a game, for example. The idea? Create a more immersive and realistic experience. We will know very quickly if the bet is successful.
The new Pokemon Go is perhaps among them. Jurassic World, The Walking Dead, Ghostbusters... location-based games are proliferating right now. The big franchises have been slow to capture the interest of the concept after the success of Nintendo and Niantic, but the wait is coming to an end. They all share a real common point: Google Maps. And the phenomenon could grow as Google will open its platform to developers, more broadly.
Google more and more solicited by video game publishers
It's been two years since Google started receiving requests from the video game industry for their developers to use Google Maps data. A request that surprised but was easy to correlate quickly with the success of Pokemon Go. The Mountain View company started to meet studios to see what they really needed.
Concretely, Google could have been content to give access to its API and tell developers to deal with that, but the idea is to go further... The developers who will participate in this project will of course have access to the data. Real time is a prerequisite, but they will also have access to the new development software for Unity. This will make it easier to integrate map data into a game.
Finally, the most fascinating part with this new Google API is that it aims to allow the creation of new gaming experiences around real places. In Walking Dead, for example, the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty will play a role in the screenplay, but more broadly, developers will be able to transform all hotels in the real world into a rest center in a game, for example. The idea? Create a more immersive and realistic experience. We will know very quickly if the bet is successful.