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‘Pokémon Go’ maker Niantic is helping others create AR metaverse apps
Coachella and 'One Piece' publisher Shueisha are already using the Lightship platform.
Niantic buys LiDAR scanning app Scaniverse to create a 3D map of the world
Pokémon Go developer Niantic Labs has acquired Scaniverse, an app that allows iOS users to create and share 3D scans.
Niantic Labs CEO posts a teaser image of some AR glasses
Augmented reality headsets could lead to hands-free 'Pokémon Go' and much more.
Nintendo and Niantic are teaming up again for an AR 'Pikmin' game
Remember Pokémon Go? Now Nintendo and Niantic are teaming up on a new Pikmin game.
'Pokémon Go' will roll back some of its COVID-19-related changes
Some of the changes added to Pokémon Go that made it easier to play during COVID-19 lockdowns are going away as of October 1st.
Niantic buys a 3D mapping startup to enable 'planet-scale' AR
As much as Niantic might be focused on making its location-based games more playable at home, it's also thinking about its future. The developer has bought 3D mapping startup 6D.ai to help it develop "planet-scale" augmented reality. The relative newcomer's work on 3D environment reconstruction and persistent AR objects promises more sophisticated experiences than you're used to in the past. Niantic teased the prospect of seeing creature habitats in Pokémon Go, or dragons landing on buildings.
Niantic cancels ‘Pokémon Go’ and ‘Wizards Unite’ community days
Niantic is postponing the Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite community days for March due to concerns around COVID-19. In a statement, the company said that the safety of its players is its "top priority," and that it will adjust its games to better suit current public health advice. Consequently, as well as cancelling the community days, Niantic is making it easier to play Pokémon Go at home.
‘Pokémon Go’ will let you play with your monster pals 'soon'
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is close to putting the finishing touches on a feature that will likely fulfill a longstanding wish for a lot of the game's fans. By 2020, Ninatic says you'll be able to play with and feed your favorite Pokémon in augmented reality thanks to the "Buddy Adventure" feature the studio plans to add to the game.
A weekend with 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite'
Mat Smith and Dan Cooper grew up in the UK at the right age to witness the birth of Pottermania. The Harry Potter novels are firmly encoded in their very British psyches, and both are fans of augmented reality, GPS-connected mobile games. So it made plenty of sense that they spend a weekend playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. One of them is a convert; the other, a hater, so let's watch them hash this out -- politely, of course.
'Pokémon Go' settlement promises action on nuisance Pokéstops
Niantic, the creator of Pokémon Go, has reached a tentative settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against the company by homeowners who claim the game caused players to stumble into their yards searching for Pokémon. As part of the agreement, the company will be more responsive in fielding nuisance complaints from private property owners and will remove gyms and PokéStops that appear near residential areas.
Pokémon Go's top players can nominate PokéStops in Brazil and Korea
Hot off its 35 percent active player boost this summer, Pokémon Go aims to keep the momentum going with a new PokéStop nominations beta. "Coming soon" for level 40 trainers in Brazil and Korea (excluding kids), with plans for a wider rollout, the feature will let you submit PokéStop locations and objects -- all from within the app's Settings menu.
Barely Related: Twin Peaks returns, so does Ghostbusters
Hello, weekend! It's so lovely to see you again. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Google takes you to the 'Endgame' of its augmented reality world
Back in January, Google teamed up with author James Frey to create a project which would combine interactive novels with augmented reality games. That effort was part of Google's interest in expanding the Ingress AR platform beyond its Niantic Labs, as it looked to share those tools with with third-party developers who could create titles of their own. Today, as part of the launch of Endgame: The Calling, the first from a series of three novels, the partnership between Frey and Google has officially kicked off this type of augmented reality/interactive game.
James Frey and Google team up to fuse interactive teen novels with AR games
We knew Google's Niantic Labs was planning to use its Ingress tech to power other augmented reality games, but we didn't expect this. In an announcement today, Niantic announced it has teamed up with publisher HarperCollins to create a location-based game for ENDGAME, a new book trilogy for young adults by bestselling authors James Frey (of A Million Little Pieces fame) and Nils Johnson-Shelton that has already been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox. Niantic will play a significant part in the interactive project, which is lovingly referred to as an "innovative omni-platform endeavor," by developing a virtual-meets-real-world game that allows mobile users to solve virtual puzzles to advance parts of the story. Google's involvement doesn't end there, either. The company has secured the rights to exclusively distribute six of 15 original e-books on the Play Store and will also use YouTube videos, search and image results and maps to build the story, mirroring elements of Niantic's Ingress campaigns. So when can we expect the project to bear fruit? HarperCollins says the first first book in the trilogy, ENDGAME: THE CALLING (yes, it appears someone's Caps Lock got stuck), will be published on October 7th, along with Niantic's official iOS and Android games. To mark the occasion, gamers will be asked to solve a virtual puzzle to claim a quantity of gold secured inside a bulletproof glass case. If that's got you excited, there is a catch -- the case is on public display and Google plans to stream the event live on YouTube.
Google's Niantic Labs launches Field Trip app for Android, helps the working world play hooky
While Apple struggles to figure out how to help its users find their way, the mapping experts at Google have just launched a way to get folks to diverge a bit from their given path. Field Trip, released for Android by Google-owned Niantic Labs, runs in the background on your Android handset, eagerly waiting for you to get near a point of interest. Once that happens, it leaps into action, showing you a card for one of thousands of cool locations -- historic spots, museums, restaurants and the like. Google's partnered with a bunch of taste makers for the project, including Flavorpill, Cool Hunting and its own Zagat, to get things done. You can vote choices up and down, change the frequency of pop ups and post your findings to Twitter, Facebook and that one Plus social network. There's also a driving mode serves as an auditory tour guide when you're behind the wheel. The app's available now as a free download in Play. The iOS version, on the other hand, is coming soon. Psst... yes, it appears to be US-only for now. Bah, humbug.
