Most people may be familiar with Niantic Labs as the once Google-owned company who developed Ingress, a massively popular augmented reality game for smartphones. Ingress has since branched off on their own and just last month they announced a partnership which will see them launch a new AR game called Pok©mon GO. The launch date is slated for sometime in 2016 although there weren’t many details in regards to the actual launch date or time frame other than the year. Although there are still very little details on the actual gameplay, today Niantic has announced they’ve received $20 million in funding from Google, The Pok©mon Company, and Nintendo to put towards the future development of their games, including the upcoming Pok©mon GO.
While $20 million in series A funding is already a significant achievement for Niantic, there’s a possibility for them to raise another $10 million in funding if they reach certain milestones. It’s unclear at the moment what those milestones are, but it’s possible the funding could come after the initial game’s release and be contingent upon how many people download and install the game. According to Niantic’s CEO John Hanke, “The Pok©mon Company, Google and Nintendo are incredible investors and strategic partners to help build the next chapter for Niantic. We will be using this capital to continue the development of Pok©mon GO, to evolve and grow Ingress and its thriving global community, and to build out our real-world gaming platform.”
Pok©mon GO was already likely to be an awesome game for many mobile gamers just for the fact that it revolves around a game which was a huge part of many people’s childhoods. The additional funding however, can potentially ensure that Niantic has everything they need and then some to make the game much more interactive, engaging and fun for everyone involved from the team behind development to those on the ground who are looking forward to playing it. As stated, in addition to using the funding for making Pok©mon GO the best it can possibly be, they will also use it build out their real-world gaming platform and to improve their other AR game Ingress.