Niantic’s business strategy has become rather boring in recent years, burying us under aconstant deluge of mediocre gamesaiming to emulate Pokémon Go’s success with various existing IPs. However, today marks the release of Peridot, the first original Niantic augmented reality game since the release of Ingress (since renamed to Ingress Prime), which predates Pokémon Go. While Peridot is very clearly a Niantic game, drawing on gameplay mechanics established over the last seven years throughout its many titles, Peridot is the first of the studio’s games that’s looking ahead to the future rather than behind.
Like Pokémon Go, Peridot is centered around the creatures you’ll collect and interact with in-game, all through an AR lens. you’re able to view what the gameplay looks like in the video we recorded (directly above). Each Peridot is completely unique (Niantic claims the amount of variations is more than 2.3 x 10^24), and each creature can offer a range of traits and personalities. At the time of release, it’s unclear how impactful these variations will be in-game, but it’s neat to know that every creature you encounter will be unique.
Peridot’s gameplay revolves around caring for your creatures rather than battling. You can forage, play, train, complete quests, and breed your favorite creatures. If Tamagotchis was still trendy, I’d expect its latest iteration to look a lot like Peridot. Niantic’s AR technology is in full force here, drawing on the latest advancements made by its Lightship AR platform, allowing creatures to be displayed in real-world surroundings for a realistic look and feel.
This AR technology means that your environment will affect how your Peridots act, from moving around objects to shadows from your environment falling on your Peridots. It’s not seamless, but it’s a hefty improvement over what debuted in Pokémon Go.
Peridot is an adorable game, but it seems to draw on themes commonly associated with the metaverse to make a splash. Niantic claims owning a Peridot brings “the delight of owning a real pet minus the mess.” Can you imagine your Peridots replacing your cats? Probably not.
You acquire new Peridots by breeding existing ones, and this is where the game’s microtransactions rear their head. To hatch a new Peridot, you’ll need a Nest, one of which costs you $4.99. You can also purchase toys (which break), cosmetics, and Sundrops. Sundrops are required in order to help your Peridot find a mate. While I would expect some microtransactions here, it’s remarkable how nearly every element of the game is tied to an in-app purchase, with these IAPs ranging up to $100 per item. While you can earn some items and resources via daily login bonuses and gameplay, it’s clear progress will be glacially slow without spending some cash
Even if Peridot doesn’t become a smash hit, Niantic’s first original game in years finally shows the innovation we expected Pokémon Go to kick off. It’s available to download now for free from the Play Store.
