Back in 2016, Pokémon Go took the world by storm, shattering download records and becoming a media sensation. Fast forward nine years, and after a string of less successful releases, Niantic Inc., the game’s creator, is reportedly on the verge of selling its gaming division to Scopely Inc., a company owned by Saudi Arabia. According to Bloomberg, this iconic piece of gaming history might fetch a staggering $3.5 billion. We’ve reached out to Niantic for their take on the matter.
This potential sale marks another chapter in the intriguing career of an unexpected gaming industry leader. John Hanke’s journey began back in 2001 when he co-founded Keyhole, a company specializing in mapping technology. Google later acquired Keyhole, and it played a crucial role in the development of Google Earth and Google Maps. In 2010, leveraging his remarkable achievements, Hanke decided to spearhead a team at Google dedicated to exploring the future of augmented reality (AR) gaming.
This visionary team launched Ingress in 2013, the first major global AR game, which quickly gained a dedicated player base of seven million. Although Ingress is often seen as a trailblazer rather than a blockbuster hit, it laid the groundwork for what was to come. In 2015, Hanke transformed the Google unit into an independent company named Niantic. The very next year, working in tandem with Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company, Niantic launched Pokémon Go, catapulting them into gaming stardom.
By the close of 2016, Pokémon Go had surpassed 500 million downloads. Riding this wave of success, Hanke took to numerous platforms to discuss how AR could bridge the gap between the real and virtual realms. He envisioned creating immersive shared virtual experiences that still depended on actual-world surroundings, powered by Niantic’s technology.
However, in 2020, the world was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw millions hunkered down at home. As the pandemic continued, Niantic had to make tough decisions, canceling several projects. By 2023, the company had laid off around 230 employees, about a quarter of its workforce. During this challenging period, Hanke stressed the importance of concentrating efforts on Pokémon Go, noting the AR industry’s slower-than-expected growth.
Now, it seems that Hanke and his remaining team might be revisiting their original passion: mapping. The geospatial data harvested from Niantic’s various apps has helped build expansive geospatial models, aiming to unlock spatial intelligence. Last November, Niantic’s Eric Brachmann and Victor Adrian Prisacariu shared updates on this ambitious project: “At Niantic, we are pioneering the concept of a Large Geospatial Model that will use large-scale machine learning to understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes globally.”
And so, in a world increasingly driven by technology, it appears the solution, as always, leans heavily on AI.
