From the creators of Pokémon Go: what Niantic did before capturing the world

Original author: Matthew Lynley
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How the hell did a little-known game studio suddenly turn into one of the most recognizable developers in the world? Who did not ask such a question, watching the stunning success of Niantic Labs with Pokémon Go. The question is really interesting. Therefore, we at Alconost, a localization company, have translated for you a brief history of Niantic Labs. Its success is not so sudden as it might seem ...


In July 2016, Pokémon Go was released - the first and truly long-awaited mobile game about Pokemon. When after nearly a decade of silence, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company finally decided to release their most popular franchise on the mobile market, the Niantic Labs team became the developer of their application.

The guys from Niantic Labs have a long-standing love for geolocation services - back in the 2000s, their director John Hanke had his own mapping company Keyhole. But first things first.


Passion for John Hanke MMO games


John Hanke, director of Niantic, has long been interested in MMO games: judging by an interview for Game Informer , he founded Archetype Interactive in 1994.

Archetype Interactive is behind one of the early 3D MMO games - Meridian 59. This interest in online games clearly does not leave John in the work on subsequent projects.

And then there was Keyhole


And then there was Keyhole, which Hanke founded in 2001. Keyhole's first product, EarthViewer, was used in news coverage during the 2003 invasion of Iraq , which brought fame to the company.

The company had several investors, including Sony, In-Q-Tel and Nvidia.



Keyhole: Google Earth Technology


Obviously, this whole story greatly interested Google, which bought the company in 2004 . Then Google announced that they would continue to support Keyhole services and even reduced the price of software, which had been worth as much as $ 599.

Subsequently, the technology developed at Keyhole was used to create Google Earth.



Workout at Google Geo


After working on Google Earth, Hanke continued to work for Google’s mapping division. Among other things, he worked on early versions of Google Maps, a service that later became one of Google’s most successful products.



Larry Page persuades him to stay


According to the New York Times , somewhere around 2012, Hanke was thinking about leaving Google and starting his own company. But Larry Page, then replacing Eric Schmidt as director, convinced him to stay and offered to open a new direction within the walls of Google.

This was part of Page's continued campaign to retain talented employees who were receiving more and more offers from developing companies like Facebook or Twitter at that time and suddenly realized that they were working in a huge - and growing - corporation.



Google's launch of Niantic Labs


All this led to the birth of Niantic Labs, which was founded to develop geolocation applications with a social component .

As Hanke told the New York Times , Niantic Labs was named after the Gold Rush ship.

First Niantic Labs: Field Trip App


The first project of Niantic Labs was the Field Trip, which they released in September 2012 . Field Trip was conceived as a geolocation-based city guide, pulling in data from various sources such as Thrillist and Zagat (also owned by Google). Field Trip showed users cards with historical information or nearby restaurants.

The application was not a game, but even then it was clear what technologies based on geolocation work in Niantic Labs. All this was subsequently used in the games that the company developed.



Ingress - a game with a very non-standard gameplay


Niantic Labs' next project was Ingress, an MMO sci-fi setting game in which users had to navigate in the real world to collect objects, participate in battles and learn more and more about the Ingress world.

Most of the mechanics worked out by Ingress are also used in Pokémon Go. Ingress was launched at the end of 2012 in the format of "invitation only" .



The separation of Niantic Labs from Google


Last August, Google spun off Niantic Labs as an independent company .

Although the resources of the entire corporation would be available within the walls of Google Niantic Labs, the separation of such projects into an independent company is a common practice. The new company benefits from mobility and freedom of action. In addition, it seems reasonable to isolate those projects whose subjects do not coincide with the main areas of the corporation's work: in this case we are talking about games that Google has never seriously engaged in.

Most often, this division is incomplete - and Google in one way or another participates in the life of the new company.

Fresh investment, including from The Pokémon Company


So Google took part in a new round of investment in Niantic Labs, which occurred after the separation of the company. While working on Pokémon Go, Niantic Labs received $ 20 million in investments from Google, The Pokémon Company, and Nintendo.



Pokémon Go - instantly gains the love of players ...


All these efforts were not in vain. Pokémon Go won the love of players around the world immediately after the release. The first game about Pokemon on smartphones - a mixture of beautiful design and seasoned nostalgia - was a hit in the blink of an eye.

The application instantly soared to the top of both ratings of the App Store: this is the most popular free application, and the application that brings the most money.

... and instantly appears on the first line of the rating, with all its shortcomings and shortcomings


Despite everything said, Pokémon Go started with an impressive list of bugs. The application often crashed, the servers were constantly overloaded, and working with Google accounts could not be called anything but disgusting: they tried to fix all this Niantic Labs urgently.

The company released an updated version of the application , in which most of these problems should be fixed. When they fix all the other shortcomings - the question is open, but one thing is clear right now: Pokémon Go has gained unprecedented popularity so far among various sectors of the population.

PS I wonder what to expect from Niantic Labs next?


About the translator

Translation of the article was done in Alconost.

Alconost localizes applications, games and sitesinto 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.

We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

Read more: https://alconost.com


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