Niantic, Inc – A gaming Software Company is located in San Francisco, California. Earlier formed as Niantic Labs in the year 2010 by John Hanke is the creator of the most famous mobile games like Ingress, Pokémon Go, and the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Today, it is the World’s leading Augmented Reality Company with a primary focus on AR Games. The technology in Niantic always gives a path for advanced robotics, new entertainment experiences, and scaled adaptive computing. Games is the only subject where Niantic produce some of the most important thinking than anything else.
Niantic has built the Planet-Scale Augmented Reality platform for applications which unite the Digital World with the Physical World. Today’s technology has transformed human life to a great extent by bringing people across the world together, information in incredible ways, and ideas. With such technology, Niantic pioneered real-world gaming which has transformed the world into a new Game Board.
Funding
Recently, in the series ‘C’ funding round, Niantic has raised a huge amount of $190M with IVP (Institutional venture partners) and lead investor besides Axiomatic gaming and Samsung Electronics as other investors.
Evolution of Niantic:
In the year 2001, a team of gamers, AI researchers, cartographers, and computer scientists, seized with geospatial applications and technologies, created a Keyhole. It was the first product that let the people rise into 3D maps of the planet. It was a video game which let users experience any place on the planet. Most of this Keyhole team works at Niantic company today. Later in 2004, Keyhole was taken by Google and renamed it Google Earth.
- 2005-2009 – In the period of 2005-2009, Niantic explored and created 3D models of various cities, places, counties, and even planets. Over time, it even introduced Google Maps, SketchUp, Panoramio, Street View with other products.
- 2010 – Niantic Labs was formed as a startup in Google. The main idea was to leverage mobile phones and to create new kind of games by understanding maps. The Games are to be created on the three important principles like Explore, Exercise and discover new places on the planet. The idea of Niantic was that When Games and Maps are combined, It can create a new Magical world for the people.
- 2012 – In the year 2012, the first game Field Trip was released which is a location-based mobile application that acts as a pilot to the hidden, unique, and cool things in the world. Again in the same year, Ingress is launched. It is the first of its kind, Location-Based, reality mobile game that changes the real-world into the view for a Global game of Mystery, Intrigue, and Competition.
- 2015 – Niantic spun as an independent private company. And announced the expansion of Pokémon GO in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
- 2016 – Pokémon GO is launched which has become a global phenomenon overnight. Pokémon GO is the most popular reality App of all time, and also is the most profitable one. After Pokémon GO is launched, the trainers all around the world had walked over 4.6 billion km collectively while playing in just two months.
- 2017-2018- By 2017, Pokémon GO was downloaded over 650 million times, and the Trainers had collectively covered the distance over 15.8 billion km on walking which is said to be the distance from Earth beyond the edge of the solar system. By end of 2017, Niantic has declared the development of New games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in collaboration with Warner Bros. and WB Games. The full stack of Niantic real-world platform is known with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game. By 2018, The total no of downloads of Pokémon GO reached over 800 million times, and the total distance Trainers have walked is tens of billions of Km.
Conclusion
Today’s technology has transformed human life to a great extent by bringing people across the world together, information in incredible ways, and ideas. With such technology, Niantic pioneered real-world gaming which has transformed the world into a new Game Board. Today, the services and products of Niantic touch hundreds and millions of people across the world.