Pokemon go Creator Niantic Labs is partnering with Punchdrunk, the New York City-based producer behind an immersive theatrical piece. Sleep no more. The partnership will have both companies work to “develop multiple projects that reinvent storytelling for a 21st-century audience and further expand the horizon of interactive entertainment.”
Sleep no moreLaunched in 2011, it is an immersive theatrical production that allows audiences to walk through a series of rooms and experience various stories and other elements of the production at their own pace. Influenced in part by haunted houses and other non-linear live productions, immersive theater sounds like a perfect fit for augmented reality because it could allow Niantic and companies like Punchdrunk to create fantastic virtual worlds that are then superimposed on real spaces.
“It is enormously exciting to join forces with the world’s largest AR company. At Punchdrunk we create richly cinematic 3D worlds where audiences can explore, touch and smell the environment; where the boundaries between reality and fantasy are indistinguishable, “said Felix Barrett, artistic director of Punchdrunk, in a statement.” Those who have seen Sleep no more They often compare the experience to what it would feel like to enter a video game. What if you bring that sense of adventure into the real world? Tear down the walls and the world will become your stage. “
Niantic also offered a few more updates to its current production channel. The company is still currently working on the mobile AR adaptation of the popular board game Catan called Catan: World Explorers. The game is being built on Niantic’s Real World platform in partnership with the company behind the board game and French game publisher Asmodee. Niantic now says the game will enter a beta phase “very soon.”
Niantic also says it is building “new ways to play” for both smartphones and AR glasses, although the company did not elaborate on exactly what headphones for which companies it may be building. “Currently, we have more than 10 new games in development, including prototypes for portable AR devices, each with a unique and innovative game, focused on outdoor exploration, movement and social interaction,” says the company.
In December 2019, Qualcomm announced that it was working with Niantic on a reference design for smart glasses as part of the chipmaker’s Snapdragon XR2 platform. And in 2017, when Apple’s ARKit support was first added Pokemon goNiantic strongly hinted that it was working with Apple on experiences that could come for the AR glasses not yet announced but heavily rumored from the iPhone maker.
