Google Maps makes it easy to overlay games on the real world.
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Google Maps helps developers make massive real-world games

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Pokémon Go took the world by storm in July 2016 when it debuted with game characters embedded in real-world maps. Now Google is making it easy for any game developer to do the same thing with Google Maps through the Unity game engine.

With the new Google Maps application programming interface (API), it will be much simpler to create games based on real-world locations — yet animated in reimagined ways such as a medieval fantasy or bubble gum candy land or a zombie-infested apocalyptic city.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.