The Niantic platform will serve as the basis for new projects alongside Pokémon GO.
The great success of Pokémon GO has shown that the game principle with augmented reality and social interaction is well received and embraced by players. In an interview with Game Informer, John Hanke (CEO of Niantic) stated that he would welcome new developers in the augmented reality space. The “Pokémon GO” developer company Niantic has already made a start in this genre with the game Ingress, which operates with AR and location tracking. The collected data from Ingress is also currently utilized by Pokémon GO. In the future, there may be even more games that rely on this data.
New projects already in planning
It has always been Niantic’s strategy to create a platform that can also be used by other games. However, it does not have to be just games that benefit from this platform. Other “experiences” that involve exploration, tasks, and social interaction can utilize this platform, said Hanke. “The Niantic platform is part of a long-term vision. We already have projects in the initial phase that we will build on this platform. In the future, you will see these projects from us.”
Hanke suspects that in future competition, other games will use locations and augmented reality to their advantage.
“I believe this is healthy (for the business). There is definitely enough room for several successful games in this category. Discovering these types of gameplay is a whole new experience for many game designers, developers, and publishers. There is still room for many innovations in this area.”
In the future, we as players can probably expect even more games that will make use of this technology. We have already seen what Harry Potter as an AR game might look like. Despite the planned new projects, there will also be further updates for Pokémon. Next, a buddy system is planned, which will allow players to earn additional candies as a reward.
