Today, Niantic, the AR technology company best known for Pokemon GO announced that it will launch Lightship (an AR Developer Kit) that makes building augmented reality experiences easier. This technology is free and openly available to Niantic, which will allow it to build the foundations for its vision of a "real-world metaverse."
John Hanke, Niantic CEO, referred to his blog post in which he called the metaverse "a dystopian nightmare". However, even though Facebook's name is changed to Meta and promotes a future dominated VR headsets, Niantic envisions an alternative: a metaverse where people can meet in person rather than in a virtual one.
Niantic's games are designed to encourage outdoor activities and new friendships. Certain aspects of Pokemon GO, such as legendary raid fights, were not possible to play online before the pandemic. Around the 2017 release of legendary raid fights, Discord communities were created to help people organize real-world meetups to attempt to catch an Articuno or a Lugia together.
Hanke stated that "At Niantic we believe that humans are most happy when their virtual world leads to a real one." "Unlike a scifi metaverse, technology will be used to enhance our experience of the real world as it has been for thousands of years."
Developers can now use the Lightship ARDK to build new games by using the foundation of games such as Ingress, Pokemon GO and Pikmin Bloom. A $20 million Niantic Ventures fund will be opened by the company, which will invest only in companies that are aligned with Niantic’s vision. Niantic already has partnerships with brands such as Coachella, Historic Royal Palaces and Universal Pictures.
This software development kit allows developers to create experiences for iOS or Android. It integrates with Unity, which is a software used to create 3D, 2D and VR experiences. It includes the top three AR features of Niantic -- real-time mapping and semantic segmentation, as well as multiplayer capability -- which make tools that Niantic has been developing for years accessible to budding creators.
In a Q&A, Amanda Whitt, Niantic's product manager, said, "You just have to have a little bit Unity experience, it is actually very easy to pick up."
For any developers interested, the new Lightship ARDK is now available from the Niantic Lightship Website.
