Niantic announced on April 5 that it has acquired augmented reality (AR) studio NZXR. The acquisition of the New Zealand company by the former subsidiary of Google is part of its desire to build the “metaverse of the real world”.
Designs of the future shared with Niantic
NZXR was founded in the middle of the pandemic by one of the teams fired by Magic Leap, a start-up offering augmented reality glasses. From then on, the company concentrated its talents of expertise in the field of AR in order to create interactive prototypes for smartphones and virtual reality helmets such as the skateboard game in AR, Skatrixand the Destination Mars interactive theater experience.
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The virtual reality studio has already collaborated with Niantic in the past. ” Over time, working with the people at Niantic, it has become clear to us that we share the same vision for the future. “, he says in their press release. ” When Niantic CEO John Hanke wrote “The Metaverse is a Dystopian Nightmare,” it resonated with us far more than any article about Metaverse. »
Niantic acquires NZXR to accelerate the development of new augmented reality experiences. Screenshot: Niantic.
” Building the Future of Augmented Reality and the Real World Metaverse »
The company behind the hit game Pokemon Go declares to welcome his new New Zealand colleagues with open arms. ” We are excited to welcome NZXR to Niantic as we continue to build the future of AR and the real-world metaverse together. “, she explains in his own ticket. She specifies that the latter will take part in the design and development of multiplayer augmented reality experiences specific to Niantic.
The acquisition of NZXR comes just a month after it acquired 8th Wall, a company that provides developers with tools to help them create AR effects. Niantic, also behind Ingress and Pikmin Bloomhad released Lightship, a free developer kit, in November last year, with the aim of making the technology present in its augmented reality games accessible.
While the notion of metaverses is growing in popularity within online communities, Niantic and NZXR are committed to bringing this concept to the real world. The Californian giant has also raised $300 million to invest in its “real world metaverse”.