Niantic Labs

A number of Pokemon GO challenges are set to be issued by Niantic in the very near future, with some pretty interesting rewards. Each is part of a #GOsnapshot Challenge for Pokemon GO, challenging users to take part with their Pokemon GO's built-in camera function. Winners of each of the three "Adventure" events will get the opportunity to win in-game rewards or to be "whisked away with with travel and tickets to a 2019 Pokémon GO Fest of their choice!" That's the one we're going for (not that we'd be eligible anyway, lol.)

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Back in November, Niantic and Warner Bros. officially unveiled Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. With Niantic at the helm, we already had a decent idea of what to expect: an AR game set in the Harry Potter universe that plays at least somewhat similarly to Pokemon GO and Ingress. Today, the two companies detailed the gameplay of Wizards Unite further, telling us budding wizards what we'll be doing when the game releases later this year.

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One of the unique elements that Pokemon GO introduced that was never part of the original game and lore are Teams and their respective Team Leaders. A lot of fiction, not to mention fan fiction, have risen around this addition and some may have developed a certain fondness and loyalty for their team. Others, however, might want to play the field for one reason or another and Niantic Labs will finally give into those wishes. Unsurprisingly, there are a few catches.

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Pokemon GO might be the game that finally made it money, but Niantic Labs’s real groundbreaking work was on Ingress, perhaps the first worldwide “augmented reality” mobile game. It was a hit for a small niche market when it launched in 2012, a market that may have felt a bit abandoned when Niantic turned its eyes on Pokemon GO. The company is now going back to its roots to take the lessons from both of its games to breathe new life into the game. Welcome to Ingress Prime.

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During its peak, Pokemon GO has been credited for getting people off their butts and on their feet and walking around, sometimes even walking into things, unfortunately. But how much walking and activity did Pokemon GO really produce. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to get that past data and can only get it directly from tracking data from smartwatches or smartphones. To fix that, Niantic Labs is launching a new feature called Adventure Sync that records our steps, syncs with Apple and Android phones, and hatches eggs.

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Some might contest branding Pokemon GO as an augmented reality game. Yes, it does use your real-world location and, at least, can at least use streets and building structures in maps. But the Pokemon themselves look more like stickers superimposed on the real world when you enable AR mode. Pokemon GO’s AR+ mode took care of that last year and it’s now finally available for Android smartphones. Provided yours is one of the few dozen that supports the ARCore framework.

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Pokemon GO is still going strong but, like any game, it has its periods of ups and downs. The game might soon be experiencing another spurt of popularity now that developer Niantic Labs has confirmed what many players have been expecting since April. The game will soon be “moving” towards the Sinnoh region, though at a yet unannounced date. But more than just new Pokemon, the preparation for that next stage of the game will also be bringing in some subtle but big changes as well.

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While rooted devices may have security implications for owners themselves, they’re also seen as potential threats to one specific class of Android apps: online games. Rooted devices have the potential to install modified versions of the game that could, in theory, give players an unfair advantage. That’s why some developers, by default, prevent rooted devices from playing their games. While that may be understandable, Pokemon GO developer Niantic Labs is using a rather controversial method to do so.

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Niantic has announced a new feature that enables parents to control their child's personal data. Called Niantic Kids Parent Portal, this feature is scheduled to arrive in Pokemon GO's latest update, as well as in future Niantic games, giving parents a way to review and approval game permissions, among other things.

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The mainline Pokemon games’ success can be boiled down to three core gameplay elements: collection, trading, and battling. Pokemon GO, the real-world “AR” version of that franchise, started out with the first and, as of June this year, added the second. We’re still missing out on the last piece which developer Niantic Labs has long promised will come. There’s no precise date yet but Niantic is at least assuring players that the year won’t end without it.

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Niantic is widely known for creating Pokemon Go, but the developer first made its name with Ingress, the augmented reality mobile game that served as much of the foundation for hit Pokemon title. Late last year the studio announced it was working on Ingress Prime, which will serve as both a sequel and revamp of the original, and feature improvements from Pokemon Go. Now Niantic has also announced an Ingress anime series is debuting this fall on Netflix.

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Niantic Labs has been doing AR games (some might debate the use of “AR” there) for quite some time. But while its Ingress had a cult following, its name never really took off until it partnered with The Pokemon Company to bring out Pokemon GO. And the rest, as they say, is history. It’s almost hard to believe that it has been two years since that fateful turn of events and Pokemon GO is now celebrating its birthday with an abundance of the Pokemon that really started it all: Pikachu.

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