Niantic splitting up with Google would accelerate its growth, sha said, “which will help them align more closely with investors and partners in the entertainment space”, She then didn’t provide any more details.
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Alphabet will create a more visible division between Google’s core products and its peripheral projects, such as the games that Niantic Labs develops and the company’s driverless cars.
Niantic Labs is the developer of Ingress, a game which involves users traveling to different landmarks around the world, such as historical sites and public sculptures.
The exact reasoning for Niantic Labs breaking off from Google and Alphabet is unclear at this point, although it likely stemmed from its services not really fitting into any specific part of Google’s new plans and revenue goals.
According to a post on Google+, Ingress has now become an independent company, and is moving forward to restructure its business alone.
Niantic has given existing users a month to opt-out of having their data transfer to the new standalone company, “to prevent any disruption in your gameplay”, and says that it is “looking forward to taking our unique blend of exploration and fun to even bigger audiences”.
The move comes just two days after Google announced its major re-organization that resulted to the creation of its holding company named Alphabet.
The split with Niantic may be because Google might be slimming itself before the upcoming reorganization. Niantic Labs, which is known for its augmented reality game Ingress, is one. To progress through the game, players must explore their own physical environments, which dictates the action on screen.
Ingress has been downloaded more than 12 million times and has attracted more than 250,000 users, the group said in its announcement on Wednesday.
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Niantic also developed Field Trip, a mobile discovery app that shows users local places of interest as they pass by them.
