Niantic Labs

Although Pokemon GO continues to be a popular game and money-maker for Niantic Labs, the mobile AR game developer hasn't had much success with its other attempts are recreating that magic. The latest evidence of its failure is CATAN: World Explorers, the mobile AR recreation of a highly popular board game. While the heavyweight brand should have garnered interest and resources, it seems that it just wasn't meant to be, as the game is shutting down soon after spending a year in early access.

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Niantic's CEO has teased the Pokemon Go-maker's first augmented reality glasses, with a cryptic preview of the digital eyewear on Twitter. It's the first public sign of the company's smart glasses, though Niantic - which is also partnering with Nintendo again on a Pikmin game - has been talking about AR gaming for some time now.

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Although less successful with its own IP, Niantic Labs found a more profitable market in making AR games around already known franchises. Pokemon GO still remains its most successful attempt while Harry Potter: Wizards Unite still has a loyal following despite lower numbers. Niantic's true product, however, is its "Real World" AR platform and it is brushing that up again for another Nintendo franchise, this time revolving around the even more cutesy creatures of Pikmin.

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It's almost impressive how Niantic Labs was able to quickly adapt to a new world where going out and walking around has become discouraged or even disallowed in some countries. That mechanic is, of course, the lifeblood of Pokemon GO but the game continues to have a strong and active following thanks to changes that made it possible to play indoors. With that crisis far behind it, Pokemon GO is moving forward with its next big features, including one literally big feature taken straight from the mainline game.

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Pokemon GO developer Niantic may be creating a set of augmented reality smart glasses, but it has no intention of building them itself, the company has confirmed. Niantic had announced last December that it would be working on a set of AR glasses using Qualcomm's chipset technology, and with which games like Pokemon GO and Ingress could better integrate into the real world.

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It's actually not exactly news that Niantic Labs, creators of the famed Ingress, Pokemon GO, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite AR games, have been working on a new title and what that title would be. It is, however, fresh news that it will soon be opening it up for beta testing. While that may already be big news for fans of the board game franchise, what Niantic also mentioned in passing might actually have even bigger implications for the still struggling AR market.

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Shelter-in-place orders and quarantines have shaken up businesses around the world. That includes not only those that require workers to come into work physically but especially those whose business revolves around people actually going out and walking around. Niantic Labs' games have been hailed for getting people to be more active, perhaps almost too active, but now the company is scrabbling to ensure players are still able to enjoy this AR experiences even when stuck inside their homes.

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Pokémon Go maker Niantic plans to make an augmented reality headset using Qualcomm's new Snapdragon XR2 Platform, paving the way to new games that integrate digital graphics with the real world. The collaboration will see the Niantic Real World Platform brought to not only Niantic's hardware but opened to other developers who want to make vast, shared AR experiences.

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"Gotta Catch 'em All" has always been the slogan of the Pokemon franchise but, truth be told, the games have been as much about organization and management as they are about collection and competition. For a game that tells you to catch them all, it's almost ironic that you have a rather hard cap on how much Pokemon you can have in storage. That limitation is even more acute in Pokemon GO but is, thankfully, expanding year after year, with this latest announcement about expanding Pokemon and Item capacities if you have the Pokecoin to spend.

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Trainers all over the world rejoice! If you've been itching to have one of your country's famous locations turned into a Gym or PokeStop, your chance may have just arrived. Provided, of course, you meet the minimum requirements Niantic has laid out. The mobile AR company has finally launched its Wayfarer program, admittedly a few days later than anticipated, to players worldwide to give eligible Trainers the opportunity to change the shape of the Pokemon GO world, hopefully for the better.

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Although not as big as Pokemon GO, Niantic Labs third AR game is still raking in millions of downloads, not to mention concurrent users. The game has had its rough patches while trying to distance itself from its more popular sibling. It may be facing its most difficult challenge yet, and not from the usual culprits like cheating or lackluster. The problem comes from within Niantic itself, from the vaults containing players' location data collected even when they weren't playing the game at all.

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Location-based AR games like Ingress, Pokemon GO, and the more recent Harry Potter: Wizards Unite are, by nature, dependent on, well, locations. The way Niantic has implemented these games require an abundant supply of location points that will make players want to go to that place. Unlike in a purely virtual world where expansion is nearly infinite, there are only a few physical places on earth that might prove interesting. That is why Niantic is launching its Wayfarer program to practically crowdsource those spots from Pokemon GO players.

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