Niantic wants more developers to use its location-based game tech

Niantic wants more than developers to use its location-based game tech

Niantic has plans well beyond Pokémon and Harry Potter

Niantic CEO John Hanke

Niantic, the developer of the always-pop Pokémon Getand the newly releasedHarry Potter: Wizards Untie, wants more than game developers to utilise its location-based and augmented reality technologies to make games.

In a recent interview with Axios, Niantic CEO John Hanke said that the company has a solid base of real-globe locations, spawn points (think: where Pokémon announced in Pokémon Go) and multiplayer battle mechanics that other developers tin use to build their games.

Y'all can see this reflected inWizards Unitesince it shares game elements withPokémon Go. Notably, the map and the 'Foundables' are merely like the map and catching Pokémon in the developer'south before game.

The differences between the two games, similar the gameplay animations and the user interface were developed past Warner Bros and Portkey Games, said Hanke to Axios.

Many games take come out sincePokémon Gowith similar location-based engineering science, but none have been able to reach the same heights of popularity. Google fifty-fifty released a evolution tool last yr that gave developers access to data from Google Maps with which to build their games.

To help find another partner, Niantic launched a contest that devs could enter and pitch ideas for a futurity location-based/AR game. Earlier this week, the company announced ten finalists. Two Canadian studios are on the listing, though at that place's no mention of what their games are yet besides a title.

Beyond that, It volition be interesting to run into if Niantic can strike gilded twice with its new Harry Potter game. So far its launch seems very popular in the U.S. and the U.K., but there'due south no word yet on when information technology's going to exist available in Canada.

Source: Axios