Niantic Buys a Digital Board Game Company to Form New London Office

Niantic, the developers behind Pokemon Go, have acquired a London-based startup that's known for combining physical games with digital apps. The company is expected to form the core of a new Niantic London office.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that the London start-up Sensible Objects has been purchased by Niantic for an undisclosed sum. The company previously crowdfunded a tabletop game called Beasts of Balance, which combines a physical board game and a digital companion app. Sensible Objects also has experience in location-based AR games, something Niantic is very much known for.

The report says the staff at Sensible Objects will be renamed Niantic London along with staff from AI and machine vision research firm Matrix Mill. Niantic acquired Matrix Mill back in 2018.

Currently the team in London will serve as support for existing Niantic titles, which are currently Pokemon Go, Ingress, and the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Niantic says customer service and app maintenance for Sensible Object's existing games will continue after the acquisition.

Niantic is building off the massive success of Pokemon Go and has already acquired a stable of businesses and developers. Niantic previously picked up appmakers Evertoon, AR company Escher Reality, and Marvel Strike Force co-developers Seismic Games.

Niantic is also integrating itself deeper into the AR world after it announced the Niantic Real World Platform, a suite of tools that other developers can use to build their own AR apps and technologies.

Niantic's next game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, is set to release later this year in 2019. We have a preview of Wizards Unite you can read here.