Six months ago, electronic music stars Richie Hawtin and Deadmau5 made an impact with their plans for a new gaming venture, Pixelynx.
Now they have announced a deal with Niantic, the company behind the popular mobile game Pokémon GO.
Partnering with music and gaming industry veterans Ben Turner, Dean Wilson and Inder Phull, Richie Hawtin and Deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) have been developing their Pixelynx platform as a “direct-to-avatar” model. The company, based in London and Los Angeles, is focused on creating a bridge between digital collectibles, gaming and virtual worlds.
According to the announcement, Pixelynx will leverage Niantic’s Lightship Platform and the Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK) to develop a mobile app version of their new gaming platform featuring AR experiences.
Pixelynx is focused on creating a new virtual world ecosystem that makes it easy for music artists to launch their own interactive environment and monetise it through NFT, playable experiences and virtual performances.
Players can collect new songs, prizes and in-game assets through gameplay. Via this partnership with Niantic, fans will be able to explore the real world, attending concerts and visiting physical locations to collect NFTs that can be used in-game to unlock rewards and new music.
“As we look towards launching our platform in 2022, the development of a mobile app that allows fans to collect new songs and NFTs in the real world was always part of our vision to create the music metaverse,” said Inder Phull, CEO and co-founder of Pixelynx “Teaming with Niantic on their Lightship ARDK to develop our mobile gaming app, will ensure that fans are able to take our game with them wherever they go, blending digital and real world experiences and enriching the fan experience in completely unique ways.”
In addition to developing and publishing Pokémon GO, Niantic is the company behind Ingress and the recently launched Pikmin Bloom.
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