Niantic’s player base collectively walked 16.3 billion kilometres and picked up 145 tons of rubbish in 2019

Niantic has reflected on its accomplishments this year by devising an Impact Report, a recap of “the positive impact its players, partners, and communities have made in 2019” on causes such as sustainability, physical and mental health, and education.

The Pokemon Go developer held 522 community events around the world by city governments, community members and non-profit organisations, with 40,000+ hours volunteered by the company’s player base.

Collectively, they walked 16.3 billion kilometres and picked up 145 tons of rubbish, which Niantic equates to “more weight than 20 elephants!” Consequently, 90,000 players came out to support charities and their local communities and donated 6,219 items to charity and community organisations. The company also worked with players to raise $100,000 for STEM programs “in communities where Niantic has offices”.

“We are excited to share the positive impact that our players, partners, and communities have made this year,” the company said via press statement. “The social impact work detailed below is centred on encouraging positive impact through real-world interactions. 

“As human beings, we can all benefit from increased positive person to person interactions. When you walk outside, you feel better and you start to engage with your community, and you interact with the real world around you. We are working to build a comprehensive set of technologies that help encourage all of these behaviours and more.”

“From the Earth Day campaign in April, to a hyper-local educational program in Harlem, New York, to the impact events held in communities around the world, we applaud the impact made by community members, non-profits, foundations, and government agencies this year. We are excited and enthusiastic about what is to come in 2020 and continue to focus on our core pillars of health, education, and sustainability. Keep an eye out for some exciting projects in the new year!”

For more, head to the Niantic Impact Report website.

Niantic recently announced it is partnering with Qualcomm Technologies for a “multi-year joint collaboration on an integrated design spanning AR glasses reference hardware, software, and cloud-components”. 

In a joint statement, the companies said the partnership was designed to ensure “interoperability with the latest AR innovations and accelerate the development of tomorrow’s devices”. The platform will initially be optimised for the Niantic Real World Platform and Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform, but “new collaborative architecture” is also expected to be provided to creators via the Niantic Creator Program when available.