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Niantic, Inc. ( ) is an American
software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...
company based in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. Niantic is best known for developing the
augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...
mobile games '' Ingress'' and '' Pokémon Go''. The company was formed as Niantic Labs in 2010 as an internal startup within
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
. The company became an independent entity in October 2015 when Google restructured under
Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
Niantic has additional offices in Bellevue, Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, Seattle, Lawrence, Tokyo, London, Hamburg, and Zürich.


History


Founding

John Hanke worked at
Keyhole A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or pas ...
in 2001, a software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications. Hanke was hired by Google in 2004 as part of Google's acquisition of Keyhole. Hanke led Google's Geo division, which was
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
,
Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...
, and Google Street View. The move to the Geo division included Keyhole employees such as Brian McClendon and Bill Kilday. Hanke left the Geo division in October 2010 to form Niantic Labs, an internal startup within
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
. The company took its name from the whaling vessel ''
Niantic Niantic may refer to: * Niantic people, tribe of American Indians * Niantic, Inc., mobile app developer known for the mobile games ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go'' * Niantic Correctional Institution, now known as York Correctional Institution ...
'', which came to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
during the
California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
in the 1800s. At the time Ingress was launched, Niantic had 35 employees.


Private company

The company spun out of Google in October 2015, soon after Google's announcement of its restructuring as
Alphabet Inc Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
. Niantic also announced that Google,
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
, and The Pokémon Company would invest up to $30 million in Series-A funding, $20 million upfront and the remaining $10 million in financing conditioned upon the company achieving certain milestones, to support the growth of the company and its products. In February 2016, Niantic announced that it had secured an additional $5 million in Series A funding including investment from venture capital firms Alsop Louie Partners and You & Mr. Jones Brandtech Ventures, as well as angel investors Lucas Nealan, Cyan Banister, and Scott Banister. While adding more support for the growth of the company, this investment enabled Niantic to bring in strategic industry pioneers including the addition of Gilman Louie to its board. In November 2017, Niantic raised $200 million in Series B funding from multiple investors, led by Spark Capital. Spark's Megan Quinn joined Niantic's board of directors during this investment round. In January 2019, it was reported that Niantic had raised an additional $245 million in a Series C fundraising round. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) but also included investments from strategic partners such as AXiomatic Gaming and Samsung Ventures. The investment valued the company at $3.7 billion, excluding the investment itself.


Acquisitions and investments

In November 2017, it was announced that Niantic had acquired ''Evertoon'', an app that allows users to make short, personalized films. According to the company's announcement, the acquisition is meant to help build social systems. At the time of the acquisition, Evertoon was only 18 months old and had only 5 employees. In February 2018, Niantic announced that it had acquired augmented reality company Escher Reality, a team focused on building persistent, cross-platform, multi-user experiences. Hanke stated that Niantic planned to allow third-party developers to build AR games similar to '' Pokémon Go''. In June 2018, Niantic announced the acquisition of computer vision and machine learning company Matrix Mill. The Matrix Mill team has spent years focusing on perfecting augmented reality occlusion by building deep neural networks that can infer 3D information about the surrounding world. The acquisition significantly advances Niantic's efforts to deliver planet-scale AR and provide even more realistic AR experiences. In July 2018, Niantic announced the acquisition of LA-based gaming studio, Seismic Games. The gaming studio consists of industry veterans from EA/Pandemic and
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
, and best known for co-developing '' Marvel Strike Force''. In November 2018, Niantic invested in DigiLens alongside Mitsubishi Chemical's Diamond Edge Ventures. The investment will help DigiLens develop holographic waveguide displays for augmented reality applications. In June 2019, Niantic announced the acquisition of London-based development studio, Sensible Object. Niantic CEO Hanke states on behalf of the company that the acquisition "significantly advances iantic'sefforts in developing a wide range of gaming experiences that bring the physical and digital world closer together". In March 2020, Niantic acquired 3D world-scanning software company 6D.ai. In January 2021, Niantic acquired community gaming platform Mayhem. In 2021, Niantic acquired Scaniverse, a 3D scanning app, and Lowkey, a social gaming platform in which users can record and share gameplay moments. In 2022, Niantic announced the acquisition of 8th Wall, a WebAR development platform, and NZXR, an augmented reality studio. In 2023, Niantic closed its Los Angeles based studio and laid off 230 employees.


Lightship

In June 2018, Niantic shared a sneak peek behind the technology they had been developing for years: the Niantic Real World Platform. The core platform consists of a suite of tools including: AR Cloud, anti-cheat security, POI data, IAP, social, analytics, CRM, sponsorship, and more. Niantic mentioned that they intend to open up the platform in the future for use by third-party developers. In December 2018, Niantic announced their Beyond Reality Developer Contest offering third-party developers an opportunity to develop a new game experience on the Niantic Real World Platform for a chance to compete for a prize pool of more than $1 million. In early 2021, Niantic rebranded the Niantic Real World Platform as Lightship. In November 2021, Niantic launched the Lightship
software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...
for augmented reality based on Unity. The company raised $300 million from
Coatue Management Coatue is an American technology-focused investment management firm led by founder and portfolio manager Philippe Laffont. Coatue invests in both public and private markets, with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications, as well as the c ...
for further development of Lightship and Niantic's "real-world metaverse", valuing the company at $9 billion.


Scopely acquisition

On February 18, 2025,
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
reported that Niantic was in talks to sell its video game business to
Scopely Scopely, Inc. ( ) is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher. The company is headquartered in Culver City, California, with offices across the United States, EMEA and Asia, with its largest location in Barcelona, Spain ...
for $3.5 billion. On March 12, the acquisition was confirmed. Niantic also announced it was spinning off its geospatial business into a separate company, Niantic Spatial Inc. In April 2025, 68 employees were laid off as part of the company's restructuring. The acquisition was completed on May 29, 2025.


Products


''Ingress''

Niantic's first augmented reality game, '' Ingress'' was initially made available on Android by invitation only in November 2012. It was then released publicly in October 2013. An
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
version was released in July 2014. Initially, Niantic had taken an alternative approach to monetization, veering away from more traditional mobile application development standards such as ad placements and in-app purchases. However, following the split with Google in 2015, in-app purchasing was implemented for ''Ingress''. John Hanke has noted that ''Ingress'' is a "
proof of concept A proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is an inchoate realization of a certain idea or method in order to demonstrate its feasibility or viability. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete ...
", adding that the next step could involve packaging
application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...
s (APIs) from the ''Ingress'' application to entice developers. Companies that partnered with Niantic were marketed through the narrative of Ingress rather than direct marketing techniques. In November 2018, Niantic released a revamped version of the game branded as ''Ingress Prime''. The game is completely rewritten within Unity. Niantic also retained the older Ingress game as a separate download named ''Scanner EDACTED'. The intention of the older Ingress game was to help aid players with the transition to Prime as feature parity was reached between both games in 2019. In collaboration with Craftar Studio, '' Ingress: The Animation'', a television series based on the game, was produced. It began airing in Japan on
Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...
's +Ultra programming block in October 2018. On April 30, 2019, the series premiered globally on
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
.


''Pokémon Go''

In September 2015, it was announced that Niantic had been developing '' Pokémon Go'' in partnership with
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and The Pokémon Company for
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
and Android devices. Tatsuo Nomura, who joined Niantic in 2015 after he developed the '' Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge'', acted as Director and Product Manager for the game. The game was initially released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States in July 2016 (and released to the rest of the world throughout the remainder of 2016), where it became an overnight global phenomenon, significantly increasing the use and visibility of
augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...
technology. In addition to topping app store charts in most regions,
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
announced that ''Pokémon Go'' had become the most downloaded app in a first week ever, which was topped by '' Super Mario Run'' later that year. Reports indicated that users were spending more time on ''Pokémon Go'' than on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
,
Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...
,
Tinder Tinder is easily Combustibility and flammability, combustible material used to Firemaking, start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder unt ...
, and
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
. In one month, ''Pokémon Go'' was downloaded more than 100 million times, with daily revenues exceeding $10 million. Exactly two months after its launch, at
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's September keynote, John Hanke announced that ''Pokémon Go'' exceeded 500 million downloads worldwide and that players around the world had walked over 4.6 billion kilometers. By December, it was announced that the kilometer distance achieved in September had nearly doubled to over 8.7 billion kilometers, meaning that players had collectively walked further than the distance to
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
. By the end of February 2017, ''Pokémon Go'' had surpassed over 650 million downloads. During ''Pokémon Go''s Adventure Week in-game promo in May 2017, Niantic announced that players had collectively walked over 15.8 billion kilometers, roughly the distance from Earth past the edge of the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
. On June 8, 2017, it was revealed that ''Pokémon Go'' had been downloaded over 750 million times globally. In 2019, it was revealed that ''Pokémon Go'' had been downloaded over 1 billion times. Like '' Ingress'', ''Pokémon Go'' has a similar approach to monetization. The game has two main revenue streams, in-app purchases and regional partnerships. To date, ''Pokémon Go'' has established several partnerships around the globe among which include
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
and
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
in the United States, Reliance Jio in India,
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...
,
7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...
in Japan, and McDonald's in Canada.


''Pikmin Bloom''

On October 26, 2021, Nintendo and Niantic announced the launch of a brand new smartphone app for the franchise '' Pikmin'' called '' Pikmin Bloom''. The project is an AR-based adventure in the real world that aims to make walking fun with the little creatures named Pikmin. This app is the first developed by Niantic's Tokyo division, established in 2018. The app was released worldwide on November 2, 2021, following a series of soft launches the previous week.


Other projects

On April 14, 2022, Niantic announced the launch of ''Peridot'', set to be launched later in 2022. Peridot open beta was initially released in Norway on July 28, 2022. The app was released worldwide on May 9, 2023. On April 17, 2023, Niantic announced it was developing a game with
Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
based on the '' Monster Hunter'' franchise titled '' Monster Hunter Now''. The game was released in September 2023.


Former projects

In 2012, Niantic launched its first product, '' Field Trip'', a location-based mobile app that acted as "your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you." In July 2019, Niantic announced it would shut down the app later that year, with the app removed from app stores.


''Harry Potter: Wizards Unite''

In November 2017, it was announced that Niantic had been developing '' Harry Potter: Wizards Unite'' in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and WB Games San Francisco, under the Portkey Games banner. The mobile AR game, inspired by J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World and
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
, is said to allow players to "explore real-world neighborhoods and cities to discover mysterious artifacts, learn to cast spells, and encounter legendary beasts and iconic characters along the way". The game was released in New Zealand as an open beta on April 16, 2019. Beta testing in Australia began on May 1, 2019. The game was released worldwide on June 22, 2019. The game shut down on January 31, 2022.


''NBA All-World''

On June 28, 2022, Niantic announced ''NBA All-World'', a partnership with the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
(NBA) and
National Basketball Players Association The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is the labor union that represents National Basketball Association (NBA) players. It was founded in 1954, making it the oldest trade union of the four major professional sports leagues in the U ...
(NBPA). The game was released worldwide on January 24, 2023. On June 29, 2023, Niantic announced that the game will be sunsetting as part of the company's layoff of 230 employees from their Los Angeles office.


Unreleased projects

In 2014, Niantic's second announced mobile game, ''Endgame: Proving Ground'', was a part of the
transmedia storytelling Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of adapting a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. From a product ...
project that also included an alternate reality game, ''Endgame: Ancient Truth'' and novels by
James Frey James Christopher Frey ( ; born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, '' A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and '' My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stor ...
starting with '' Endgame: The Calling''. CATAN GmbH announced at the 2019 Spiel that it was working on an "upcoming massively multiplayer location based game" titled '' Catan: World Explorers''. The game was to be based on the '' Catan'' board games; players moved through the real world, using their smartphones to build a Catan universe. The game was soft-launched as an open beta for New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and Singapore. The game shut down in November 2021, never officially launched. In June 2021, Niantic announced ''Transformers: Heavy Metal'', a partnership with
Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...
and
Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...
. The game was being co-developed with Seattle-based studio Very Very Spaceship, but Niantic cancelled the game and three others in June 2022 amidst layoffs. In September 2022, Niantic announced it was teaming up with Marvel Entertainment to create ''Marvel World of Heroes'', based on the Marvel Universe. The game was scheduled to launch in 2023. On June 29, 2023, Niantic announced that the game was cancelled.


Controversies


Lawsuits

Niantic has been sued in at least two class-action lawsuits: one starting in 2016 due to complaints from homeowners regarding trespassing and nuisance caused by ''Pokémon Go'' players, and a $1.58 million settlement following gameplay issues during a real-life event in Chicago. In 2023, two former female employees that Niantic laid off sued the company for denying equal pay to female employees and to women of color. One employee accused the company of being paid $10,000 less than her job's posted pay range, and between 2021 and 2023, she had learned that a less experienced male colleague had a higher salary than her. Wolfpack, a human resources for women, found in a survey that many female employees viewed Niantic as "sexist" and referred to them as a "boys' club".


Spoofing

On June 15, 2019, Niantic sued Global++, an unauthorized third-party software created by an "association of hackers" which allowed players to spoof their GPS location to cheat in Niantic's augmented reality games, including ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go''. Niantic claimed that the hacked versions of the applications were infringing on their intellectual property rights. The developer of Global++ earned money by selling subscriptions and asking for donations via the hacked apps. This resulted in Niantic forcing the developers to terminate their illegitimate distributions of the hacked apps and
reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
the games' codes. Eventually Global++ had to shut down their services, ''PokeGo++'' and ''Ingress++'', and their social media services. Niantic has also claimed that Global++ was also in the process of creating ''Potter++''—shortly before the release of the actual content—which Niantic stated would harm the success of the game. The lawsuit was settled for $5 million following a decision on January 12, 2021, and Niantic was granted a permanent injunction.


COVID-19 pandemic

In August 2021, Niantic faced criticism from the Pokémon Go playerbase due to reverting safety measures implemented during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, in which gym and PokéStop interaction distances were increased from . New Zealand and the United States were the first countries to have the pandemic bonuses revert on August 1. The Delta variant of COVID-19 in the U.S. became dominant in July 2021, along with outbreaks. Players began boycotting Pokémon Go in the first week of August 2021. Niantic responded to the community on August 26 by permanently changing the interaction distance to 80 meters. In April 2023, Niantic changed the game's remote raiding feature, which was introduced during the pandemic. The in-game prices for remote raid passes were increased, and the number of remote raids a player could do was limited to five a day.


References


External links

* {{Authority control American companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in California Augmented reality Companies based in San Francisco Mobile game companies Privately held companies based in California Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies based in California Video game development companies Pervasive games Virtual reality companies Spatial computing Nintendo