*By Justin Chermol*
Maintaining fans' excitement during a show's off-season isn't always the easiest task, but Next Games and AMC Networks may have a solution.
The companies' recently-launched first-person, mobile action AR game, "The Walking Dead: Our World," aims to keep fans engaged even when new episodes aren't airing.
"'The Walking Dead' lives 365 days a year. We don't want people to only engage with our universe on the 16 weeks that 'The Walking Dead' is airing or the 16 weeks of a year that 'The Fear of the Walking Dead' is airing," Clayton Neuman, AMC Networks' ($AMCX) VP of games and entertainment said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
"'Our World' keeps live operations going all the time, we always have events running, we always are putting new features and adding new characters," he added.
The game, which went live in July, incorporates Google's ($GOOGL) ARCore technology and Apple's ($AAPL) ARKit to launch players into the zombie-infested world of "The Walking Dead." A new feature for season nine, which debuts Sunday, will roll out new missions to correspond to the latest episodes.
It's kind of like "Pokémon GO"...with zombies.
Companies have had varying degrees of success with augmented reality games ー Nintendo & Niantic's Pokémon, for example, developed a huge following when it launched in 2016, prompting retailers to open Pokémon "gyms" around the world and seeing users go to [extreme lengths](https://www.polygon.com/2016/8/16/12507376/pokemon-go-player-charged-subway-tracks) to capture valuable creatures. Two years later, though, the craze has subsided.
"Our World" has run into problems too. Technical snags have affected the game's key performance metrics, according to a [press release](https://www.nextgames.com/company-release/next-games-publishes-information-on-the-walking-dead-our-world-games-development-during-q3-in-conjunction-with-investor-meetings/).
Still Neuman is optimistic about the future of AR in gaming.
"Gaming is an ever-evolving field," he said. "And as new technologies emerge, there are always going to be newer platforms that emerge. I don't see them as replacing, but complementing."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-walking-dead-fans-brace-for-more-ar-features-in-mobile-game).
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