Nintendo has announced a new partnership with Niantic, developer of Pokémon GO, to co-develop a new mobile Pikmin AR game The new app is expected to launch later this year

The news was announced yesterday in a blog post on Niantic's website According to Kei Kawai, Vice President of Product Management, the upcoming game "will include gameplay activities that encourage walking and make walking more fun"

Niantic also revealed that the app will be produced by its Tokyo Studio, which was established in 2018 A release date for Pikmin AR is set for this year

Sadly, this is all the information that has been shared so far However, more details are expected to be released in the coming months The good news is that this is not a one-time partnership

"We are excited to continue this partnership in pursuit of our mission of encouraging people to explore the world together"

And if you're already super excited to play with the adorable characters from Nintendo's "Pikmin" series, you can pre-register for more updates on Niantic's website

This news was followed by a press release from Nintendo According to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Representative Director and Fellow, Niantic's AR technology "allows us to experience a world where it seems as if Pikmin are secretly living around us" Miyamoto also stressed that the goal of the partnership is to provide "a new experience that is different from traditional games"

Niantic CEO John Hanke described the partnership as "a natural next step with Nintendo"

"We look forward to shaping the future of AR together," Hanke said

At this stage, it is too early to tell if the upcoming Pikmin AR game will be as big a hit as Pokémon Go, a game that quickly became one of the most popular smartphones after its release in 2016

Speaking of Pokémon Go, at the Microsoft Ignite conference last month, Hanke presented a demo of what Pokémon Go might look like using Microsoft's HoloLens AR technology While this was only a demo, it proved that Niantic is serious when it comes to "shaping the future of AR"