Niantic CEO Teases an Updated Look at AR Glasses Design

Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke shared a small teaser of what looks to be a pair of AR or XR glasses from Niantic. The Pokemon Go developer has been looking into AR heavily, and this could be the next step for Niantic games beyond just the smartphone.In a short tweet, Hanke says progress is being made on “new kinds of devices” that leverage Niantic’s AR platform. He also shared an image of the stem of what appear to be glasses, with some kind of strap with the Niantic logo. The glasses stem is also thicker and appears to feature some kind of speaker, possibly.

Exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform… pic.twitter.com/yYglk4q89G

— John Hanke (@johnhanke) March 29, 2021

Niantic’s interest in AR glasses technology goes a long way back. In 2019, Niantic announced a collaboration with Qualcomm on an XR platform that combines XR, 5G, and AI along with Niantic’s AR platform. This is the same AR platform that Niantic uses for games like Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

Niantic also demoed a version of Pokemon Go on Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and Microsoft Mesh platform. AR glasses it seems will allow players to see Pokemon out in the world, though at the time Hanke says its HoloLens demo was not intended for consumer use, according to The Verge.

The AR glasses space is heating up recently after years of VR goggles dominating the gaming space. Apple is reportedly working on an expensive, $3,000 VR headset with 8K displays as a trial product before launching a more consumer-friendly AR device.

The Niantic-powered AR glasses could help take games like Pokemon Go and maybe the newly announced Pikmin game from Niantic to the next level.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Photo credit: Niantic