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<\/a>From a gameplay standpoint, Go is brilliant. Although the Pokemon that players seek out obviously aren\u2019t real, searching for them closely approximates the in-game experience that the franchise has been known for since its introduction on the Game Boy back in 1996.<\/p>\nBut now, instead of moving a character through a virtual landscape in search of the elusive \u201cpocket monsters\u201d, players find them dotted throughout the real world. To be successful, players need to leave their homes and travel to where the Pokemon are physically located \u2014 which often happens to be a high-traffic area or other point of interest.<\/p>\n
As a game, it\u2019s hard to imagine Pokemon Go being a bigger success. At the peak of its popularity, throngs of players were literally causing traffic jams as they roamed the streets in search of invisible creatures. But what players may not have realized as they scanned the world around them through the game was that they were helping developer Niantic build something even more valuable.<\/p>\n
The Imaginary Gig Economy<\/p>\n
The game has used augmented reality (AR) to bring the world of Pokemon to life since day one, but it wasn\u2019t until the fall of 2020 that Niantic introduced AR Mapping<\/a>. With this new feature, players could scan real-world locations and objects by walking around them while the software captured images from their smartphone\u2019s camera. This was presented to the player as \u201cField Research\u201d, and once completed, it would unlock various rewards in the game.<\/p>\n For those with a technical mindset, the implications of this are immediately obvious. Through the Research system, Niantic could direct Pokemon Go players anywhere they wished. Once the imagery from these Research scans were uploaded, they could be used to create detailed 3D models through the use of photogrammetry. The more players that perform Field Research on a particular location, the more accurate the results.<\/p>\n If Niantic wanted to create a 3D model of a statue in a park or the front of a building, they simply needed to assign it a Field Research task and the players would rush out to collect the data. Forget Google\u2019s Street View \u2014 rather than sending a camera-laden car out once every year or so to grab new images, Niantic could sit back while millions of players uploaded high resolution pictures of the world around them in exchange for in-game trinkets that have no physical value.<\/p>\n No Such Thing as a Free Pokemon<\/p>\n In the tech world there\u2019s a common saying: \u201cIf something is free, you\u2019re the product.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea being that if you\u2019re using some service without paying for it, there\u2019s an excellent chance that the company providing said service is somehow making money off of the situation. So for example when a user looks up a particular topic with a search engine, they can be presented with contextually appropriate advertisements. By selling this ad space to companies, the search engine provider generates a profit for each \u201cfree\u201d search performed by its users. The personal relevancy offered by such bespoke advertisements can be more effective than traditional TV or print ads, which in turn means the search engine provider can charge a premium for them.<\/p>\n The answer is Niantic Spatial<\/a>. This spin-off company was announced in March of 2025<\/a>, and offers a Visual Positioning System (VPS) created in part using the photogrammetry data collected by Pokemon Go. Through this service Niantic Spatial offers centimeter-scale positioning for millions of high-traffic locations all over the globe, even in areas where GPS may be inaccurate.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Niantic Spatial announced<\/a> they had entered into an agreement with Coco Robotics to provide VPS for their fleet of delivery robots. Images captured by the robot\u2019s onboard cameras can be fed into the VPS to provide a more accurate position than is possible with GPS, even in the best of conditions. This is particularly important for a robot that not only needs to navigate an ever-changing urban landscape, but must arrive at a precise location to successfully complete its delivery.<\/p>\n Always Read the Fine Print<\/p>\n At this point, you may be thinking to yourself that this all seems a bit shady. Can Niantic really take the data that was provided to them by Pokemon Go players and spin that off into a commercial venture that monetizes it? Of course they can, because that\u2019s precisely what players agreed to when they installed the game.<\/p>\n Section 5.2 of the Niantic Terms of Service<\/a>, titled \u201cRights Granted by You \u2013 AR Content\u201d, states that the company retains wide-ranging rights over anything that users upload through the AR functions of their products:<\/p>\n<\/a>Just as in our hypothetical search engine example, Pokemon Go is offered up to players on Android and iOS free of charge. To date, it\u2019s been downloaded by over a billion total users. To make the game financially viable, Niantic eventually needed to find a way to turn all those free downloads into a revenue stream.<\/p>\n