Niantic Opens Lightship Platform Globally, Empowering Developers to Build Their Visions for the Real-World Metaverse

SINGAPORE – Media
OutReach – 11 November 2021 – AR
technology company Niantic, Inc.（HQ:
San Francisco, CA USA; CEO: John Hanke), the developer of the world’s first and
only scaled AR platform, has announced the release of the Niantic Lightship
Augmented Reality Developer Kit (Lightship ARDK) to all AR developers around
the world. Available at Lightship.dev, the company has also shared a glimpse of the possibilities this
technology affords through its launch brand partners like Coachella, Historic
Royal Palaces, Lifull, the PGA of America, Science Museum Group, Shueisha,
Softbank, the artist JR and Superblue, TRIPP, Universal Pictures and
Warner Music Group. 

The
Lightship Platform is the foundation for Niantic’s products, built on years of
experience developing and running titles ranging from Ingress to Pokémon GO and
Pikmin Bloom. As part of the Lightship Platform, the ARDK is a cross-platform
software development kit that runs seamlessly on billions of Android and iOS
devices around the world. It brings together the tools and technologies that
power the top three AR features — Real-Time Mapping, Understanding and Sharing
— so developers can create unique AR experiences that seamlessly utilize some
or all of the ARDK tools. 

Niantic
is also announcing the formation of Niantic Ventures
to invest in and partner with companies building the future of AR. With an
initial $20 million fund, Niantic Ventures will invest in companies building
applications that share Niantic’s vision for the Real-World Metaverse and
contribute to the global ecosystem that they are building. To learn more about
Niantic Ventures, go to Lightship.dev.

“Transforming
humanity’s relationship with technology by merging the physical and virtual
worlds will require the ideas and perspectives of as many people as possible,”
said John Hanke, Founder and CEO of Niantic. “That’s why we’re so excited to
open the vault of technology that powers our own games, so developers, creators
and brands globally can build inclusive experiences that push the boundaries of
what’s possible in AR.”

More
information on the launch can be found in Niantic’s Blog post, John Hanke’s announcement and Lightship AR video channel.

#Niantic