What We Can Learn from the Untimely End of Pokemon Go

Author

Lori-Lee Elliott
March 07, 2025

But First…Cool, if Real

Augmented reality classic arcade games in 3D

Tetris in Augmented Reality

This is real! Ian Curtis at Niantic, Inc. made AR tetris, Pong, and Snake. Links for the mobile apps are available here on his post where you can also watch the full video.

Updates and Wins

The Army selected Dauntless XR for our first contract (yay!) with the branch, but we're now trapped in the GovCon purgatory that is 2025. The latest update indicates we'll wait another 45-60 days before the next sign of life from an Army Contracting Officer. A 90-day selection ➡️ award timeline is far from the worst we’ve experienced, but if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation, we're reopening our "Screaming into the Void" support group.

Industry News

  • Valve's $1200 Headset: Can Valve succeed where Apple failed with a new high-end XR headset? Apple's strategy is to launch a product and then figure out product-market fit (PMF). Not every company can afford to do that. Enter Valve. Valve already knows that their market is gamers, and gamers need computing power and don’t mind if the headset is tethered since they’re mostly stationary anyway. We also know that the gamer market will spend beaucoup dollar on a gaming rig that delivers. These factors - suped up computer, amazing graphics, a stationary setup, and a $$$ price tag - might fit the high-end headset product. We stand by the lore that there won’t be one headset to rule them all. Headsets and smart glasses are hardware that’s closer to cameras than laptops or smartphones.

  • Pokemon Go is Up For Sale: Niantic is selling their game unit, which includes the massively popular Pokemon Go, to focus on AR mapping tech called Lightship. Lightship is a kind of GPS that bridges Google Maps and a real-world massive multiuser O.A.S.I.S. using Gaussian splats. The sale implies that Pokemon Go isn’t profitable enough to continue licensing. A cautionary tale to entrepreneurs trying to crack the spatial gaming vertical - even the most well-capitalized company with banger IP bowed out.

  • The YouTube of 3D Content: HTC is bringing WebVR back! Sort of. Here’s what is different in 2025: Viverse doesn't load the 3D environment until the user looks at it for superior performance. What we like: It makes sharing 3D content more accessible. What we don’t like: Taking elegant tech strategies like object pooling and streaming tech and then injecting it into an iFrame HTML element. It’s clunky. Also, can we get more creative naming conventions and not just take ‘verse onto the end of products in 2025?

Recently Played >

What our founders listened to this week.

Saved on Socials

The posts, memes, and videos that caught our attention and made us think this week.

Overheard on Slack

Enter the chat. What our devs are talking about…

  • “So we can say we won the worst GovCon competition ever?” - If there's a competition for the longest contracting timeline, we might win it.

  • “XR be hard, man” - Because you can’t just be great at writing code when physics comes into play.

  • “We look like an indie band called 'Bangs & Bowl Cuts' - When childhood throwback pics hit the #random channel

  • “Don’t get FOMO, NOFO like a MOFO.” - How many bad acronyms can we work into one terrible tagline? NOFO = Notice of Funding Opportunity, in case you were wondering.

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