Sensible Object acquired by Niantic

Posted on 18th June 2019 in Blog

After five years of building augmented reality games, I’m thrilled to announce that Sensible Object has been acquired by Niantic, Inc. (the minds behind Ingress, Pokémon GO, and forthcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite), and will continue as Niantic London. CEO John Hanke and his team have an incredible, progressive vision for the future of play that resonates deeply with us; building global communities, pioneering new forms of augmented reality, and helping people get outside, get exercise and connect with one another in the real world.

I want to thank the entire team past and present for their hard work, creativity and kindness; our family and friends for their patience and support; and the network of partners, investors and supporters who made our work possible. We’re proud of what we achieved together: pioneering new kinds of play for augmented reality, connected hardware, and voice AI.

To the players of Sensible Object’s games, thank you for all your support and feedback! We want to reassure you that, while the Sensible Object team is moving on to new projects, customer service and app maintenance for our games will continue.

We’re honoured to have the opportunity to become Niantic London. London is a unique city; through Sensible Object and formerly Hide&Seek we have been making augmented reality games here for over a decade. Joining Niantic feels a bit like coming home – back to the first game I ever ran. I’d played Journey to the End of the Night (a street game by the art collective SFZero) at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York, and brought it over in May 2007. 80 intrepid runners raced across the city, starting in Wapping and finishing on the beach by the Southbank Centre. It was the start of a scene – a unique melting pot of artists, organisations, tech companies, festivals, critics… and most importantly a diverse community of game-makers, able to experiment and create together. There’s so much value in this network – friendship, experience, wisdom, trust – and we can’t wait to connect it with the visionary promise Niantic offers.

–Alex Fleetwood, Founder of Sensible Object