Niantic, a San Francisco startup, will unveil three new
updates to Pokemon Go this year, plus a new version of its original
game Ingress, seeking to build on the success of its augmented
reality offerings.
The developer is also busy working on new augmented
reality games, Niantic Chief Executive Officer John Hanke said at a
session at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona on
Tuesday (Feb 28), moderated by Bloomberg Television’s Caroline
Hyde.
“The products we are building we think are the games
that drive demand for AR,” Mr Hanke said. He didn’t specify when
the new versions of the games would be released, but added, “We’re
only just getting started on Pokemon Go.”
Mr Hanke said Niantic was also increasingly focusing on
wearable devices. Pokemon Go launched on Apple’s Watch in Nov, and
the company is working with Canadian wearable technology startup
Mighty Cast, which released a wristband that can be used for
Ingress, a location-based mobile game with a science-fiction theme,
in Jan.
Mr Hanke flagged several areas where he thinks the
mobile industry can improve, from location technology to beacons.
“We are working with operators to win new customers and decrease
churn,” he said.
Since its introduction in July, the Pokemon Go app has
been downloaded 650 million times, with 44,600 terabytes of data
transferred. Users have also walked a combined 8.7 billion
kilometres through Dec catching Pokemon — about the same distance
to Pluto at its furthest point in orbit, he added. BLOOMBERG
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