News

Niantic acquires animation platform Evertoon to add new social features to Pokemon GO

Evertoon's community services to shut down at the end of November

Date Type Companies involved Size
November 6th, 2017 acquisition Evertoon
Niantic
Not disclosed
Niantic acquires animation platform Evertoon to add new social features to Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO developer Niantic has acquired social animation developer Evertoon for an undisclosed sum.

Evertoon states that it will be helping to add a new social platform to Niantic's portfolio of games, including both Pokemon GO and Ingress. The team will also be bringing its engineering leadership experience to the company.

The Evertoon social platform will be shut down as part of the move. The platform will be put into "offline-mode" on November 30th 2017, and all community aspects will be removed. Users will still be able to access the app to make new content, so long as they have the latest update.

Innovative social mechanics

"Niniane and her team have been exploring innovative ways to add social mechanics to digital products," wrote Niantic CEO John Hanke on the company's blog.

"As our products and platform evolve, they will help build social systems that will benefit our entire community. We are also excited to have Niniane's engineering leadership and team management skills, as our team grows."

Niantic made headlines recently when it was reported that it had reservations about the similarities between Pokemon GO and Elyland's Draconius Go. The Ukranian developer has held firm, and claims that the reaction simply means Niantic sees it as a serious rival.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.