Niantic Labs
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The definitive Niantic reading guide
In just a few years, Niantic has evolved from internal side project into an independent industry trailblazer. Having reached tremendous scale in such a short period of time, Niantic acts as a poignant crash course for founders and company builders. As our EC-1 deep-dive into the company shows, lessons from the team’s experience building the Niantic’s product offering remain just as fresh as painful flashbacks to the problems encountered along the way.
As we did for our Patreon EC-1, we’ve poured through every analysis we could find on Niantic and have compiled a supplemental list of resources and readings that are particularly useful for getting up to speed on the company.
Reading time for this article is about 9.5 minutes. It is part of the Extra Crunch EC-1 on Niantic. Feature illustration by Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch.
I. Background: The Story of Niantic
Google-Incubated Niantic, Maker of Ingress, Stepping Out on Its Own | August 2015 | In August of 2015, Niantic announced that it would spin out from Google and become an independent company. As discussed in WSJ’s coverage of the news, Niantic looked at the spin out as a way to accelerate growth and collaborate with the broader entertainment ecosystem.
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Niantic’s follow-up to Pokémon Go will be a Harry Potter AR game launching in 2018
Niantic Labs had tremendous success with Pokémon Go, which paired their expertise in building location-based augmented reality mobile experiences with a top-flight IP with a ravenous fan base. So, it stands to reason that we should expect a similar fan response to Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, an AR title set to launch in 2018, co-developed by Warner Bros. Interactive and its new sub brand… Read More
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Pokémon GO reveals sponsors like McDonald’s pay it up to $0.50 per visitor
Pokémon GO-maker Niantic says it has driven 500 million visitors to sponsored locations like McDonald’s Japan where gamers can score a special virtual good. But it never said how much those sponsors paid per visitor delivered by the game. Mario arrives as Pokemon Go peaks, with declining downloads, falling revenue
The phenomenal mobile hit Pokémon Go has peaked, just as the anticipated Nintendo title Super Mario Run hits the App Store, vying for mobile users’ attention and the chance to best Pokémon’s record-breaking numbers. According to new data from App Annie, Pokémon Go has seen declines in both downloads and revenue over the past several months, though it’s still highly… Read More
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Pokémon Go’s Thanksgiving event gives players double XP and Stardust
Pokémon Go’s second big in-game event is timed for U.S. Thanksgiving, running between November 23 and November 30, during which time players can get double the standard XP and Stardust for in-game actions. The double up is a little more limited than the first event, which offered up candy bonuses and higher encounter rates for specific Pokémon, but it’s still a nice bump for… Read More
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Pokémon Go will “likely” come to Android Wear
Pokémon Go will come to Android Wear, it seems. At TechCrunch Disrupt SF this afternoon, John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs – the company behind the most viral and profitable mobile game of all time – confirmed that his team will look into bringing game to other mobile platforms which are interesting in terms of both gameplay and mobility. Asked specifically if Android Wear was on… Read More
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A brief history of Niantic Labs, the makers of Pokémon Go
Niantic Labs, a small gaming company previously owned by Google, has gone from a somewhat obscure gaming shop to one of the most prominent developers overnight. The company launched Pokémon Go in July 2016, the first very long-awaited smartphone version of a Pokémon game. After holding out for nearly a decade, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have finally unleashed one of its most… Read More
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Niantic acknowledges that Pokemon are way too hard to catch now, promises a fix
About two days ago, Pokemon Go players noticed a change — and it wasn’t one they’d been hoping for. All of a sudden Pokemon were much, much harder to catch. They dodged more, hopped over your ball more often, and worse yet, if you did manage to get one inside your Pokéball, odds were seemingly higher than ever that they’d bust out and immediately run away. Even the… Read More
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Meet 6 weird new Pokemon from Pokemon Sun and Moon
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have another game besides Pokemon Go that they want you to remember: Pokemon Sun and Moon. Since I loved Pokemon before it was about getting exercise and meeting new people, I’m very excited about Sun/Moon’s release on Nintendo 3DS, which happens November 18. But I’m struggling to remember if all new Pokemon in each sequel were as weird as… Read More
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Pokemon Go T&Cs strip users of legal rights
Players of Pokemon Go are not only giving up their right to act like sane human beings in public, as they walk around, zombie-esque, reaching into the phones held in front of their faces, they are also likely to be waiving legal rights if they don’t take a very close look at Niantic Labs’ Terms of Service for the game. Read More
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