We live in a bygone era where major projects are canceled before the general public even gets their hands on them. A good example of this is the project Transformers Heavy Metal, a Niantic augmented reality game that was canceled last month and this week the game's servers were shut down.
The difference here is that the game was never even released globally. Transformers Heavy Metal was shelved even before the global release.
Announced almost a year ago
Transformers Heavy Metal was announced in 2021 as another Niantic game with augmented reality and the “Pokémon GO” way of being. The player would roam around the city collecting items and fighting characters from the Transformers franchise.
Like Niantic's first game, Ingress, the game would focus on the duel between the two factions, Autobots vs Decepticons.
See the gameplay of Transformers Heavy Metal:
https://youtu.be/lYNcOxLT988
Created in partnership with the studio Very Very Spaceship and Hasbro, Transformers Heavy Metal was a huge and ambitious project. This is not a mere “copy and paste” of Pokémon GO.
Transformers: Heavy Metal even had tests in some regions. In fact, judging by the online gameplay videos, the game literally looked ready.
The saturation of the mobile games market is evident. Niantic canceled three projects like this. Big projects from other companies are dragged along for years, waiting for a “good window” of release.
Soon we will talk more about this subject in an exclusive article.
