John Hanke’s Post

Today marks the closing of one chapter and the opening of a new one for Niantic. We just announced that Scopely will be acquiring our games business, including Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now. And we’re spinning out a new geospatial AI company, Niantic Spatial Inc. We founded Niantic 10 years ago to inspire people to explore the world, together, by overlaying it with digital experiences. I’m grateful to everyone who joined us on this journey, and I’m proud that players have explored 30+ billion miles and made over a billion friend connections in our games. Every week we hear inspiring stories of people finding lifelong partners, making exercise more fun, or discovering a new sense of belonging. I’m confident our games will thrive with Scopely. I've often talked about building “forever games,” and I believe they will continue to be just that. To our players: thank you. I’m also incredibly excited about what’s next with Niantic Spatial. Why? Because we’re in the midst of seismic changes in technology, with AI evolving rapidly. Existing maps were built for people to read and navigate but now there is a need for a new kind of map that makes the world intelligible for machines, for everything from smart glasses to humanoid robots, so they can understand and navigate the physical world. Today's LLMs represent the first step towards a future where a variety of expert models collaborate to reason and understand complex problems, and many of those problems will require deep and accurate knowledge of the physical world. Niantic is building the models that will help AI move beyond the screen and into the real world. With $250M in funding, some of the world's best geospatial AI talent, access to proprietary data, a strong customer pipeline, and a rapid product cycle, I believe Niantic Spatial is poised to succeed and, like the games that gave birth to it, to make its own positive impact on the world. Stay tuned for more info. jh