Niantic have released their latest title, a 3D pet-taming AR game called Peridot, as the company seeks to make waves once more.

Previously announced in April 2022, Peridot takes a decidedly more laid-back approach to the more familiar Pokémon formula that Niantic made a huge success with Pokémon Go. Rather than battling monsters, players collect pets in the form of Dots, then train, feed and care for them. Much more like a digital tamagotchi than digital cock-fighting, and it’s already drawn significant praise.

The Verge for example commented, “The AR aspect of the game is truly impressive. Not only does the game look great, but the dots interact with the real world in surprisingly realistic ways.”

It’s no surprise that the AR impresses, given that this is the first of Niantic’s titles to use their new Lightship technology. Niantic arguably popularised the use of AR technology and showed how it can make a blockbuster hit with Pokemon Go, but recapturing that success is something that has been difficult for them and others. Even heavyweights like Witcher creators CD Projekt Red haven’t been able to keep up with the AR-craze, with their AR title shutting down and developer Spokko with it.

The Niantic news

So far it's looking like good news for Niantic, following confusion last week as they pushed back against reports as to their revenue being at a low. The company stated, in a comment to Eurogamer "We generally don't comment on third-party estimates of our revenue as they are often incorrect, which is the case here. Our revenue so far in 2023 is up on last year."

It seems then that Peridot can be considered another big step forwards for the company, with a title that is not tied to an existing franchise that will carry them forward and let them innovate further afield than their flagship Pokémon product. We’ll be watching its progress closely.