Niantic's New Virtual Pet Game Peridot Brings More Cuteness Overload

Niantic is releasing a new game, Peridot! It's a virtual pet game reminiscent of every Niantic game, from Tamagotchi to Neopets.

Niantic, the company responsible for the worldwide success of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go, has once again given us a game packed with cute, adorable creatures.

Niantic's Peridot Release

Peridot is all about caring for and breeding magical creatures. Consider it a hybrid of Pokémon Go and a Tamagotchi, with a few real-world and augmented reality elements thrown in for good measure.

As The Verge reported, according to Niantic, the basic premise is as follows, "After thousands of years of slumber, Peridots are waking to a world vastly different from the one in which they used to roam, and they'll need your help to protect them from extinction."

Players will be responsible for caring for creatures by training, feeding, and playing with them as they grow from cute little babies to full-grown adults, and they will eventually be responsible for breeding more of them.

A distinguishing characteristic of peridots is that each creature is completely unique. They each have their own unique look and personality traits, which are achieved through a mix of hand-made assets and procedural generation.

Niantic said that Peridot will start soft launch beta testing in a few markets later this month on both the App Store and Google Play, with a full launch later this year in the works for the rest of us.

How to Navigate Niantic's Peridot

Peridot will be structured in the same way as Niantic's other games, including, most recently, Pikmin Bloom, in which players will explore the real world with their virtual pets.

This can include searching for nests in the wild, which are necessary for breeding, as well as satisfying the needs of your Peridot by taking it for a walk or purchasing special food for it.

According to IGN, thanks to Niantic's Lightship ARDK technology, peridots can distinguish between different types of terrain and forage for different items depending on whether they are on grass, water, or sand.

Peridot's gameplay will also be affected by the weather, and Niantic has said that it is working on adding snow to the game.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, despite having a storyline that involves saving a species from extinction, there is no death in Peridot.

After they reach maturity, peridots can breed with each other in special nests that are themed around certain archetypes. Some peridots can only change one thing, while others can change many things.

There are many different types of animals, like the unicorn and the cheetah, and these can be combined during breeding to make new and adorable animals that we all love.

Niantic Games

Niantic reveals that their team is working on several games in their roster now. Recently, the company released the game Pikmin Bloom, an equally wholesome journey that invites players to walk alongside their squad of floral seedlings.

As TechCrunch reports, despite the company's decision to discontinue its Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game shortly after, other properties such as its flagship Pokémon Go game continue to be huge moneymakers for the augmented reality developer, generating more than $1 billion in in-app purchases last year.

In a blog post published in November, Niantic stated that it had nine games and apps in the works, including Transformers: Heavy Metal.