Android device owners will have the first privilege of testing out the latest game from Niantic, this one on the Harry Potter franchise.
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Niantic rounds up $200 million ahead of Harry Potter game
The firm was founded inside Google and came out of it with $30 million in funding. As it prepares a game for the Harry Potter franchise, it grabs more.
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Yer A Wizard, Niantic! | #PNWeekly 278 (LIVE at 3p ET)
A new roving AR game for Harry Potter fans is coming around next year! Plus, more controversy around the Pixel 2 XL and iPhone X on this week's show!
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Niantic is working on “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite”
The company behind the engines of Pokemon Go and Ingress are going for it once again, this time with a Warner Bros. property.
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Nex + Ingress Band could be why Pokemon GO smartwatch apps are delayed
The Nex Band sounds like one of these new-wave wearables that’ll hit the crowdfunding rounds sooner or later — and it did, earlier this year. The team behind it is encouraging you, the consumer, to “hack your life” with its five-button concept to get notifications, remind users of geolocation markers, create music and so on.
So, what does this have to do with Niantic Labs — the company that developed Ingress, the game for geocachers to hack the world, and another game that brought Pokemon to life?
The maker of Pokemon GO has seemingly stalled development on its Apple Watch app, scheduled to be released by the end of the year. Niantic has since only said that the app is still coming soon to address rumors of its delay.
Pokémon Go for Apple Watch is coming soon. Stay tuned.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 17, 2016
Why the delay?
9to5Mac reports that Niantic is backing the Nex + Ingress Band a variation of what seems to be the upcoming second iteration of the Nex Band called Evolution. It takes the same five-button concept from the original product, adds color LED displays to each button, but puts a focus to the Ingress game with “Mods” and game functions executable by just wearing the band. A Pokemon GO version of the Nex Band is also being discussed.
The financial interests and negotiation work of getting more control of a Nex Band versus a free Apple Watch app that was promised by the end of the year. Delaying one project could benefit the other, but whether Niantic would benefit the most from deciding in this dilemma is questionable.
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Second-gen Pokemon launch as Pokemon GO uses Pikachu to celebrate holidays
Time to re-download that Pokemon GO game.
Niantic Labs has announced that the augmented reality game has more monsters to hatch, including Togepi, Pichu and “select others.” These creatures will need to be hatched from eggs in order to be had. We have a feeling that if you know your Johto, you’ll find these monsters familiar.
Beyond that, you can now search for some “limited edition Pikachu” wearing festive hats (Santa hats for some). You’ll need to tap into your captures with the AR camera function to see if they’re wearing them.
Sprint and Starbucks have recently pledged their stores in the United States as PokeStops and gyms.
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Pokemon GO Plus pre-orders at Best Buy will ship starting January 20
Tap and catch. Beyond the companion apps for Apple Watch and Android Wear, there is the wearable peripheral for Niantic-made augmented reality game Pokemon GO, the Pokemon GO Plus.
The Bluetooth-connected bracelet that alerts users to nearby Pokemon and let them mine PokeStops of their goods is up for pre-order at Best Buy for $34.99. First shipments should make their ways out on January 20 — the accessory has been in high demand at the outlets it is currently available at.
The game is getting more advanced trading and battle features and more business partners for PokeStops.
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Starbucks and Niantic toss in another 7,800 stops for Pokemon GO
Beyond the green and red cups, useless wireless charging pads and the never-ending line of Macbooks taking up space at table upon worktable, you’ll find teenagers with their smartphones out ordering a Frappuccino®.
Starbucks and Niantic Labs have teamed up to offer 7,800 coffee shop locations as PokeStops and gyms. Sprint and its related brands did just the same for their 10,500 or so retail spots yesterday. McDonald’s Japan started off the trend with its 3,000 restaurants.
But the most important news today is that Starbucks is debuting “a special-edition Pokémon GO Frappuccino® for everyone!”
What a time we live in.
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Sprint and Niantic partner to bolster Pokemon GO stops count
Over 10,000 Sprint, Boost Mobile and Sprint at RadioShack stores will either become PokeStops or gyms in Pokemon GO starting December 12.
The deal between Sprint and the game’s developer, Niantic, will ensure that the stores are at least one guaranteed destination for fans — ready to take on the game’s newest features like trainer-to-trainer battles and the reinstatement of the Nearby tracker — to visit. These stores will also provide charging docks to Pokemon GO players fee-free.
If anything, the deal seals a first link in a possible series of others between Sprint and Niantic. This week, Sprint’s parent company, SoftBank, pledged $50 billion of investment into the US tech environment.
T-Mobile also offered its own perks to Pokemon GO players nearer to the launch of the game.
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Pokemon GO on Android Wear is also coming
While Apple and watchOS 3 may nab Pokemon GO on the go first, Android Wear should not be too far behind. In fact, there’s code in the full Android version of the app that references the Pokemon GO Plus accessory, due out this week, and what hardware it’ll work with.Pokemon GO Hub was able obtain and decompile version 0.37.0 of the app, finding code in the ...
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Pokémon Go Plus companion device has a new, firm release date: September 16
Yesterday was as much Apple’s big day as it surprisingly was Nintendo’s, with Mario’s own “father”, Shigeru Miyamoto, dropping by San Francisco to let the near-resigned mobile world know the best-selling video game franchise ever is finally extending iPhone users an olive branch.Oh, and Pokémon Go is headed for Apple Watches, in ...
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Post-peak, where will Pokemon GO’s bottom be?
Pokemon GO’s first month has seen stellar growth that Nintendo couldn’t have imagined. The Pokemon Company and Niantic were riding the coattails of this windfall as did what we found out to be contingent markets.But the party has to be done soon, right? Every viral product has that top ...
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Pokemon GO permabans activated
Harassing fellow players? Using location emulation? Manipulating the Pokemon GO app? Just breaking any of the Pokemon GO Terms of Service? You can be permanently banned from the game.“Submit a ban appeal” is a new entry to Niantic‘s “Frequently Asked Questions” section of its Pokemon GO site.“Our goal is to provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for ...
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More than a million portable batteries were bought in the two weeks since Pokemon GO’s launch
In a game like Pokemon GO, where the GPS is blaring its location out constantly and the screen and the camera and the GPU and everything is going crazy and hot and tiring and ugh — yeah, batteries be runnin’ out. Fast.That’s why people bought 1.2 million portable batteries for their phones ...
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Pokémon Go Plus wearable accessory is officially pushed back two months
Let’s be honest, no one could have predicted the rampant, record-breaking success of Pokémon Go, a “freemium” augmented reality mobile game that’s ambitious in concept but ultimately simplistic in its execution. Not Niantic, not Apple or Google, and certainly not Nintendo, which isn’t making as much money here as investors originally ...
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