Niantic Labs, the division behind the super popular augmented reality game Ingress will be spun off into a new company. Other emerging businesses and advanced projects – like self-driving cars and Internet-connected balloons – will become separate companies under Alphabet. Earlier indication suggested that Niantic was developing Ingress as a television show.
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As part of the announcement Google also reshuffled its leadership structure, appointing Sundar Pichai as CEO, replacing co-founder Larry Page.
“We’ll be taking our unique blend of exploration and fun to even bigger audiences with some wonderful new partners joining Google as collaborators and backers”, the newly formed company said in a post on Google+ Wednesday.
Niantic Labs is no longer a Google company; however, it is not yet clear what the main reason behind this separation is.
A new perspective, concentrated on independence and autonomy, will allow Niantic to focus on growth, in order to become more close to investors and partners in the entire entertainment space.
Niantic Labs develops Ingress – a game, responsible for creating multiplayer geocaching game, in which players are going to various real world landmarks, for example like a public sculpture, or capturing it for the team by using various commands on their smartphones.
The move comes just two days after Google announced its major re-organization that resulted to the creation of its holding company named Alphabet.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said that it will remain a backer to Niantic.
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Ingress has seen a great success, as it has been downloaded on Android and iOS more than 12 million times and had pulled 250.000 people to events held across the globe. Google has also not given any statement regarding the breakup with its internal start-up, but the search engine giant’s recent reorganization into Alphabet could be one of the reasons for that.
