Pokemon GO developers Niantic have been making great strides towards improving the Augmented Reality (AR) features of the game since it’s initial launch. The most notable effort was when they integrated the enhanced AR system from Apple’s ARKit technology inside iOS 11 devices. Now it’s looking like you’ll be able to play with your friends in AR.
Niantic has recently acquired a Bay Area-based startup called Escher Reality, which specializes in AR games and experiences.
Escher Reality’s software should allow developers (like Niantic) to enable mobile devices to connect together in an AR scenario, allowing multiple people to see and interact with the same objects. They also have done research towards creating persistent AR environments. This means players could leave an object in one way, and be able to return back to it later on or even let others discover the object in the way the first player left it.
Escher Reality CEO Ross Finman and CTO Diana had this to say.
“We’re really looking forward to integrating our work on mapping and computer vision technology into Niantic’s amazing content and AR platform. The long term vision is to help to bring shared and persistent AR experiences to millions of people around the world, and further realize AR’s impact going forward.”
What this means for Pokemon GO remains unknown, but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not utilize this new resource for their biggest game in some manner.