Pokemon Go dev Niantic teasing AR glasses
The company could be getting into the hardware game.
It sure looks like Pokemon Go maker Niantic is working on some augmented reality glasses.
That's going by a post on Twitter from the company's CEO and founder John Hanke, in which the exec said that it was "exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform." That's accompanied by a rather cropped picture of a pair of glasses boasting the Niantic logo.
Niantic has so far produced a number of mobile AR games, such as Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Ingress. The firm is currently working on a title based on Nintendo's Pikmin IP.
To date, Niantic has achieved augmented reality via smartphone cameras; if the developer is indeed creating AR glasses, then it's the company's first foray into doing making hardware as well as software. The were always there though; back in 2019 Niantic signed a deal with chip maker Qualcomm to work on AR glasses, but the firm did say at the time that it had "no plans" to make its own hardware. Guess we'll have to see what's actually happening and how that has all shaken out.
Niantic also recently showed what Pokemon Go could look like on Microsoft's HoloLens AR goggles with a proof of concept video that featured Hanke doing all manner of actions from the game.