'Ghostbusters' AR Game Announced By Sony
Sony has announced its plans to release a new "Ghostbusters" augmented reality game. The announcement comes after Google officially launched its ARCore mobile augmented reality (AR) platform which allows developers to create their own AR apps and games.
The new AR title promises to unleash "specters, poltergeists, full-roaming vapors, and more" on mobile devices later this year. Following the footsteps of Niantic's "Pokemon GO," the game will send players on a wild hunt to capture hundreds of ghosts from the "Ghostbuster" franchise's "films, TV shows, comic books, theme parks, and video games."
While the franchise doesn't have the same massive following as "Pokemon," the promise of capturing ghosts on their mobile phones seem too good to pass up for any die-hard fan.
The game will be published by South Korea-based publisher FourThirtyThree Inc. 433 will develop the game in conjunction with Sony Pictures Entertainment Consumer Products and Ghost Corps.
The studio previously launched a number of popular games, including "Blade for Kakao," "Monster Super League" and "Seven Guardians." Their catalog mostly included games with role-playing elements suggesting that the same mechanic will be present in the "Ghostbusters game."
"'Ghostbusters' is the perfect brand and best content to utilize AR technology," said Jamie Stevens of Sony Pictures. Fans can expect more information, including a hands-on demo, at this year's Mobile World Congress currently happening in Barcelona, Spain.
After announcing ARCore last year, Google has been emphasizing AR technology for Android devices. The company itself has tried preview versions of the new tools on its own Pixel devices.
The company previously said that it plans to have 100-million 100 million ARCore-enabled phones by March 2018. Samsung could supply a large bulk of this figure having already teased "immersive new experiences" for its devices in a joint statement.
No release date has been announced for the "Ghostbusters" AR game. However, it is set to arrive within the year on both iOS and Android devices.
