Niantic, the world’s leading augmented reality company focused on augmented reality (AR) games, announced that it has acquired API software solutions developer Hoss. Niantic states that with this acquisition, the Hoss team will help strengthen the Lightship ARDK platform.
Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, one of the world’s most successful augmented reality games, also underlines that Hoss will accelerate and expand the Lightship developer experience (DX) and create a robust toolset that makes working with Lightship easier. As the Lightship project is still in beta, new team members will help build the Lightship platform portal ahead of the imminent launch of Lightship ARDK. Beyond launch, the expanded DX team will continually iterate over the overall developer experience as more developers engage with the overall platform tools, support, and Niantic team.
Following the acquisition of Hoss, which is planned to significantly improve the experience for developers, Kei Kawai, Chief Product Officer of Niantic, commented:
“As we prepare to open the Lightship platform to developers around the world, it’s critically important that we get two things right — both the tools in the ARDK to help developers build new experiences and the developer experience as we work together to build this exciting new world of AR experiences.”
Hoss CEO Matt Hawkins added:
“The opportunity to join Niantic at this time is incredible. We repeatedly found that developers are not happy with the status quo when it comes to developer experiences, and the chance to build out the Lightship DX as we’re getting ready to open the platform to developers around the world is a once-in-a-career type of opportunity that we are so incredibly excited to be a part of.”
