Niantic’s ‘Codename: Urban Legends’ wants to be the first great 5G AR game

The first experience meant to demonstrate that high-quality augmented reality games could be the killer app for 5G wireless networks is here.

Last summer,Pokémon Gocreator Niantic announced it was teaming up with an international roster of wireless carriers to扩展5G网络高质量AR体验的可用性。现在，七个月后，其中一些运营商的客户终于可以演奏第一场比赛的演示版本，从而从联盟中出来。

DubbedCodename: Urban Legends, the demo was built on the same global location-based AR platform powering megahits likePokémonGo和Harry Potter: Wizards Unite。该项目的目的是展示高质量AR游戏在联盟合作伙伴（Verizon，Deutsche Telekom和Globe Telecom）的5G网络上的吸引力。

虽然Niantic尚未在说全版本Codename: Urban Legendswill be available, the release of the demo is an important milestone as the alliance moves toward a broader deployment of 5G-ready AR experiences. Each of the networks is doubtless eager to prove to customers that it’s worth paying for access to the next generation of wireless network.

“Many of today’s 4G applications will simply work better or evolve in 5G,” Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research,told me last year当联盟首次揭晓时。当时，鲁宾说，他认为AR可能是唯一可以“从根本上改变我们与世界互动的方式，如果它可以进入高带宽，低延迟，最终对5G的广泛覆盖范围”。

Since then, he’s concluded that cloud gaming may also be a winner on 5G networks. Still, Rubin now says, “AR has the most transformative, long-term potential in driving consumers’ interest.”

And that’s exactly what Niantic is hoping to show the world. As its CEO, John Hanke, said last year, the goal of the alliance is to marry the edge-computing element of the carriers’ 5G networks with Niantic’s platform in order to let millions of people play the advanced games and other applications that will eventually be available. According to Niantic, alliance partners’ 5G networks will deliver one-tenth the latency of 4G networks as well as the ability for 10 times as many people to play games concurrently. In short, the company is banking much of its future on the idea that AR gaming will eventually be 5G’s killer app.

Codename: Urban Legendswas designed to demonstrate the technology’s capabilities. It’s an immersive, social, multiplayer experience that tasks players with casting spells to battle monsters and save imperiled allies.

目前，5G运营商客户将在智能手机和平板电脑上播放Niantic的经验，但该公司暗示了通往5G网络优化自定义AR硬件的逻辑途径。2019年，Niantic与高通公司合作，为AR眼镜进行了参考设计。一年半后，该公司显然仍然专注于创建类似的硬件，至少在周一的一条汉克推文中证明了这双Niantic品牌AR眼镜的一侧照片。他写道：“看到我们正在启用利用我们平台的新型设备所取得的进展令人兴奋。”

Exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform…pic.twitter.com/yYglk4q89G

- 约翰·汉克（John Hanke）（@johnhanke）March 29, 2021

While it’s too early to know for sure, Niantic’s alliance with 5G carriers might hint at where it will go with its hardware efforts. But if Niantic and its partners want to be the leaders in this technology race, they’ll have to fend off challenges from giants such asGoogle,苹果, andFacebook。

With initial titles likeCodename: Urban Legends, Niantic is hoping to get a jump-start on those rivals and win the battle before it really begins. If people find the demo impressive, it can help to raise excitement, Rubin says. But, invoking the memory of one of technology’smost recent and infamous crash-and-burn tales, he cautions that there’s no guarantee of success. After all, he points out, “Magic Leap had several impressive demos.”