Niantic and Qualcomm Teaming Up To Create AR glasses For Bigger Game Experiences

Is the sky the limit for Niantic’s tech?

Niantic has mastered the art of mobile releases with its development of Pokemon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. But now it’s teamed up with Qualcomm, a telecommunications equipment company, to create experiences on a much larger scale.

The two will work together to create AR glasses with accompanying software and cloud components, according to a report from VentureBeat. All the details on the partnership weren’t made available yet, but we do know that they’ll bring together two key technologies — Niantic’s Real World Platform and Qualcomm’s CR2 hardware.

With these, the report notes, the company will create “world-scale AR games” used by millions of consumers.

Qualcomm has been hard at work trying to put a deal in place for the augmented reality front, introducing a variety of chips to attempt to bring in partners. With this new partnership, the two will work in a multi-year agreement, which means both companies have time to make the AR glasses the right way.

Phil Keslin, Niantic co-founder and CTO, hopes the deal can “move the entire AR industry forward as we work together with Qualcomm Technologies to define a true end-to-end architecture — inclusive of hardware, software and cloud technologies.”

It’s unknown if Niantic will use one of its popular licensed properties — like Pokemon — with the AR tech just yet.

We’ll see what becomes of this deal in the years ahead. But if Qualcomm can utilize Niantic’s skills for the right tech, it’s going to find a lot of happy buyers.