Where to get it

App Store

Niantic Games Team · Board game

Catan: World Explorers

Catan: World Explorers is a massively multiplayer augmented reality game that transforms the entire Earth into one giant game of Catan. Harvest, trade, and build in the real world as cities and landmarks transform into settlements where you can collect resources, construct buildings, and score points for your Faction!

Released: —
Platforms: Android Legacy Mobile Device
Genres: Board game
Developers: Niantic Games Team
Publishers: —
Perspective: First person
Themes: Open world
Country: United States

About

Catan: World Explorers was an augmented reality (AR) mobile game developed by Nerd Ninjas, and published by Niantic, based on the board game Settlers of Catan. It was announced in 2019, soft-launched in some countries the following year, and discontinued in November 2021.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

According to the official website, players of the game are divided into teams which compete over time to earn "victory points". The game was promoted as having players developing settlements and roads while collecting resources (brick, lumber, grain, ore, and wool), with "matches" being competitive elements at the local or global levels being held in a "season". Like in prior Niantic AR games (such as Ingress and Pokémon Go), the game was set to be centered around real-world landmarks, where players could collect resources in-game.

Development

In late October 2019, the publisher of Catan revealed during SPIEL 2019 in Essen that the company was developing a "massively multiplayer location based game". A promotional website was later released, which allows interested individuals to pre-register for the game. Niantic later confirmed its involvement in the development process following inquiries from media outlets, noting that the upcoming game was developed on its "Real World Platform". By June 2020, preregistration for the game had been opened.

In early July 2020, the game was soft launched in New Zealand.