Pokemon Go developer Niatic announced today that it has raised its Series A financing round from The Pokemon Company Group, Google and Nintendo. As mentioned in today’s announcement, “The companies are investing up to $30 million in Niantic, Inc., which includes an initial $20 million upfront and an additional $10 million conditioned upon achieving certain milestones.” Through the funding, Niatic intends to continue developing Pokemon Go, support the global Ingress community, scale its platform, and release new games.

Niantic CEO John Hank said of today’s news:

“The Pokémon Company, Google and Nintendo are incredible investors and strategic partners to help build the next chapter for Niantic. We will be using this capital to continue the development of Pokémon GO, to evolve and grow Ingress and its thriving global community, and to build out our real-world gaming platform.”

Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, also stated:

“Pokémon’s strategic investment in Niantic paves the way for a social mobile experience the world has never seen before. The Pokémon Company is committed to partnering with companies like Niantic that share the same spirit of community and innovation.”

Finally, some words from Google’s VP of corporate development, Don Harrison:

“Niantic has shown the great potential of mixing geolocation technology, dynamic storytelling and innovative game design, and we’re excited to continue supporting the team on their journey.”

Source: Pokemon PR

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Pokemon Go news coming very soon

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 4 Comments

Pokemon Go was announced last month. We saw a trailer and received some information, but we don’t really know how the game will play. That should be changing very soon though. Niantic representative Evan Dexter told Slate a couple of weeks ago that more information would be shared in “mid-October”. It’s October 10 today, so an update shouldn’t be too far off.

Dexter said:

“We’re not quite ready to talk in more depth about Pokémon GO than what was revealed in the announcement press release and assets. Come mid-October we’ll be able to start going into more depth about our plans for the game, and about our plans for real world gaming overall.”

Pokemon Go is a new smartphone game coming from The Pokemon Company, Niantic, and Nintendo. It makes use of “real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokemon.” The title is arriving sometime in 2016.

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

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Pokemon Go getting a closed beta in winter 2015, out early next year

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 17 Comments

During a press conference last night, Pokemon Go was announced for smartphones. We heard that it was on track for a release next year, but now we have slightly more information.

The latest Ingress report reveals that Pokemon Go will be receiving a beta in winter 2015. Additionally, the title now has a more specific “early 2016” launch window. We’ll be receiving more information within the next few weeks supposedly.

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