On April 3, 2024, Niantic announced that The 8th Wall now supports Apple Vision Pro development via the Metaversal Deployment program. While Niantic wears many hats, it is best known as the developer of Pokemon GO. Seeing this announcement, Pokemon GO players couldn’t hold in their excitement for a potential Pokemon VR game.
Pokemon VR Possibility Excites Pokemon GO Players
Pokemon GO was, and still is, marketed as a way to bring Pokemon into he real world. It’s a game meant to blend realities through the use of AR technology, and its functionality has vastly improved since it launched in 2016.
So, it doesn’t seem too farfetched to think that The 8th Wall could develop an even more immersive experience now that it has access to Apple Vision Pro tech. The excitement for a potential Pokemon VR game was echoed throughout the comments and quoted posts on X.
“Does this mean we will now ACTUALLY be able to play Pokemon Go in VR?” one user wrote. Another commented, “Please notify me when Pokémon Go can run on this. That would be a game changer for real.”
Others claimed they would purchase an Apple Vision Pro for the sole purpose of playing Pokemon in VR.
However, the announcement is less about Niantic stating they are developing games for the Apple Vision Pro and more about producing tools for other developers to make AR and VR experiences. The goal of Metaversal Deployment is to allow developers to build spatial experiences on 8th Wall and then distribute them on multiple platforms, including the Apple Vision Pro.
In a blog post titled ‘What’s Amazing (and Potentially Terrible) About Apple’s Vision Pro‘ from Niantic CEO John Hanke, he states, “What makes it potentially terrible is that it could lead us down a path where our industry focuses on indoor, VR-centric experiences that might lead us away from the true essence of AR.”
He concludes the piece by championing the technological innovations of AR and VR technology but warns those who may get “sidetracked” by indoor-centric spatial computing. In other words, it doesn’t sound like Hanke has plans for Pokemon GO to step into virtual reality just yet.
