10 Things You Didn’t Know About Niantic, The Company Behind Pokémon GO

It doesn’t take long for the millions and millions of users to realize that there is something surprising about Pokémon GO. As soon as you start up the app, the launch screen displays a company and logo that is likely unfamiliar to everyone who was expecting to see Nintendo or The Pokémon Company. Instead, the first image that users of the app see is a prominent ship floating in a balloon with NIANTIC engraved below, subjugating “The Pokémon Company” to a minor position practically as a footnote near the bottom of the screen. Here are 10 things you should know about the company that is the developer and distributer of the game:

1. CEO John Hanke was behind the first ever MMORPG with 3D graphics, called Meridian 59, in 1995

Meridian 59 is still available to play today and set the standard for other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft.

2. Hanke’s next company, Keyhole, Inc., was acquired by Google in 2004 for $35 million and its product served as the foundation for Google Earth

Google Earth had an impact comparable to that of Pokémon GO similarly for its groundbreaking technology that allowed users to view any place on earth from an aerial view.

3. Niantic was founded as an internal startup at Google in 2010

Hanke worked for Google as VP of product management for a few years until he founded Niantic as a startup within Google.

4. Niantic was named after a whaling vessel that eventually transformed into a bar and hotel.

From the outset, the company’s goal was to make people interested in historical landmarks and fun facts about their physical surroundings. That goal still holds true with Pokémon GO.

5. Niantic’s first app was called Field Trip and revolved around “finding cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you” by giving users notifications when they were around interesting historical landmarks

Niantic first looked to achieve its goal without the help of an addictive craze like Pokémon, hoping that users would want to know about the history of their environment without any extra catch. While Field Trip wasn’t a raging success, it helped Niantic develop the technology that would become vital to Pokémon GO years later

6. Niantic’s next app, Ingress, gained over 14 million downloads and was very similar to Pokémon GO

Ingress is like a “giant game of capture the flag” where players go through a sci-fi story as they visit different “portals” located around cities in what now have become pokéstops. If you want more info on how Ingress worked, check out this video from 2014 where people wearing Google Glass and rocking Skrillex haircuts describe its gameplay

7. Ingress was particularly popular in Japan, and The Pokémon Company’s CEO was a high level player

There were several large meetups for Ingress players in Japan, and it definitely helped the negotiations between Niantic and The Pokémon Company that The Pokémon Company’s CEO was an Ingress fan

8. Pokémon GO started as an April Fool’s Joke in 2014

The first time that Google and Pokémon came together was for Google’s annual April Fool’s Joke, which in 2014 involved scattering 151 pokémon in different locations in Google Maps. Players who actually found all of them received special Pokémon Master business cards from Google.

9. Niantic split from Google in 2015 before Pokémon GO’s release, but Google still is invested in the company

This was likely just a move so that people would see Pokémon GO as something fresh and new, rather than a new Google project to collect all our data. Still, it’s no coincidence that you need to sign in to the app through your Google account; Google is still quite involved with the geocaching technology and everything else.

10. One of Niantic’s board members, Gilman Louie, was affiliated with the CIA when he was the very first CEO of In-Q-Tel

While Hanke was working at Keyhole, Inc. developing the technology for Google Earth, he did work with Gilman Louie, who was then the CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital company that invested in data technology for the CIA. He’s no longer working at In-Q-Tel though, so don’t get carried away with too many conspiracy theories :)

Thanks for reading!! If you want to read more about what Niantic CEO John Hanke thinks of the future of VR, AR, and gaming, check out this medium article he wrote.