Niantic acquires social gaming platform Lowkey

Pokémon GO developer Niantic announced that it is acquiring the majority of staff behind Lowkey, an app for gamers to capture and share gameplay moments.   

“Their leadership in this space will accelerate the social experiences we’re building in our Niantic products. We share a common vision for building community around shared experiences, and enabling new ways to connect and play for our explorers.” head of product Ivan Zhou said in a blog post. 

Last week, the San Francisco-based company raised $300 million from Coatue at a $9 billion valuation, to build out its vision for the Real-World Metaverse.

Earlier this month, Niantic launched the Lightship AR Developer Kit, enabling developers worldwide to develop augmented reality games with free tools. It also announced Niantic Ventures, a $20 million fund to help identify and fund the AR leaders of tomorrow.

“We believe AR has the potential to impact humanity in transformative ways, and it is our intention to continue building social tools that contribute to this goal. Today, that takes the form of experiences like in-game chat in Ingress, gift exchanges in Pokémon GO, Postcard sharing in Pikmin Bloom, and meeting up at our many real-world live events. Our long-term vision is to create even deeper connections across Niantic games and continue bringing people together in the physical world.” Zhou said.