A month after purchasing WebAR development platform 8th Wall, Niantic announced that it had acquired New Zealand-based augmented reality studio NZXR. These strategic acquisitions appear to be part of Niantic’s plan to build a “real-world metaverse” project that relies on AR rather than VR.
NZXR is a company that creates unique multiplayer AR experiences for mobile devices. It also produced software for AR headsets from Qualcomm, as well as Magic Leap. Creating dozens of experiences and supporting projects, the NZXR team has been involved in interactive theatre, AR skateboarding, AR multiplayer demos, etc.
“We’re excited to welcome NZXR to Niantic and continue building the future of AR and the real-world metaverse together,” said Dennis Hwang of Niantic.
The target is real-world metaverse
According to NZXR’s blog post, the company collaborated with Niantic and continued collaborative work on games like Pokémon Go before accepting a permanent partnership offer. The financial terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Niantic’s goal is to create augmented reality experiences for millions of people to enjoy. They also want to continue to develop third-party apps alongside the technology that powers these experiences. The AR-focused development kit continues to power Niantic Lightship, Ingress, Pokémon Go, and Pikmin Bloom.
The combination of Niantic and NZXR will help accelerate AR experiences for the real-world metaverse.
