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Pokémon Go will get new augmented reality features like shared AR and user-curated waypoints

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Niantic has learned a lot about location-based gaming and augmented reality from the hundreds of millions of players in its games like Ingress, Pokémon Go, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. And now it is adding a bunch of AR and location-based features that benefit not only its games but small third-party game developers as well.

Underneath its games, Niantic operates the Niantic Real World Platform, said John Hanke, CEO of the San Francisco company, at a press briefing in San Francisco this week. Flush with cash from its games, the company has been investing in internal development, external acquisitions, and investments in startups to bring new tech to its platform.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.