Niantic and Marvel are working on AR game World of Heroes

Pokémon Go developer Niantic is working with Marvel on a new AR game for smartphones called Marvel World of Heroes. In that game, players can create their own superhero and fight crime. The game will be released next year.

Players can patrol their neighborhood with their very own superhero to “thwart crimes, complete missions, and fend off interdimensional threats and super villains,” writes Niantic. Users can choose their own identity and origin story for their hero and can team up with Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine and friends. Further details about the gameplay are limited, but a trailer shows, for example, that players have the powers of heroes like Dr. Strange, Cyclops and Thor.

The AR game will be available worldwide next year. The game will soon be available in a “limited number of countries” as a beta test and will be released to the rest of the world at a later date. A specific release date has not yet been announced. Users can register on the Marvel World of Heroes website.

Niantic has already released several AR games in the past that use the same formula, where players have to go outside and perform activities on their smartphone. The company is best known for Pokémon Go. Last year, the developer announced AR game Pikmin Bloom, for which it is partnering with Nintendo. The company is also working on a game based on NBA. The company also previously released AR games based on Harry Potter, Minecraft, Transformers and Catan, although those games were later dropped.