Niantic acquires Lowkey
"We share a common vision for building community around shared experiences," the studio said
Update: A Niantic representative reached out to GamesIndustry.biz after the publication of this article to specify that Niantic actually has acquired the company Lowkey as well as bringing on the majority of the team.
The original story follows below.
Niantic has acquired the team behind social gaming platform Lowkey.
The Pokémon Go developer clarified to GamesIndustry.biz that it hasn't acquired the company itself, but just hired the majority of its team.
Lowkey is a social media site geared towards video editing and sharing, in particular gameplay videos.
"Their leadership in this space will accelerate the social experiences we're building in our Niantic products," head of product Ivan Zhou said. "We share a common vision for building community around shared experiences, and enabling new ways to connect and play for our explorers."
Earlier this month, Niantic announced it was going to start licensing its AR tech. Its Lightship ARDK is free for the first six months but, starting in May 2022, Niantic will begin charging for multiplayer APIs for apps with more than 50,000 monthly active users.
Last week, the company also raised $300 million to build the "real-world metaverse," bringing Niantic's valuation to $9 billion.
The developer's vision for a metaverse relies on creating an "ever-evolving AR map of the world" to "make the real world come alive with information and interactivity," CEO John Hanke said at the time.
Additional reporting by Brendan Sinclair.