Niantic took home two accolades for Best Live Ops (Pokemon Go) and Technological Innovation (Real World Platform) at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards in association with Game Insight.

The Live Ops prize recognises the impact of significant updates, in-game events and/or excellent community management over the last year for games released in 2017 of before.

Running successful games for the long-term is a key aspect of the mobile games industry, and Pokemon Go’s consistent updates and real-world events have proven to be immensely popular. It remains one of the most played mobile titles in the world since its 2016 release.

Other finalists in the Live Ops category included CSR Racing 2 (NaturalMotion), Empires & Puzzles (Small Giant Games), Fastlane: Road to Revenge (Space Ape Games), Guns of Boom (Game Insight), Idle Miner Tycoon (Kolibri Games), Merge Dragons! (Gram Games), Pokémon GO (Niantic) and Subway Surfers (SYBO Games).

Innovators

Not just achieving recognition for its work in games development, Niantic’s work on the Real World Platform saw it take home the accolade for Best Technological Innovation.

This award is for any developer or technology company that is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on mobile devices through a new technology, be it hardware or software.

Not just providing the foundations for its own games like Pokemon Go and Ingress, the Niantic Real World Platform is set to power an array of augmented reality titles in the future.

Niantic won out in a category that included AppOnboard’s App Store Demos, ARKit 2, Hatch, SpatialOS, Razer Phone 2, VK Direct Games, Niantic Real World Platform and WeChat Mini Games

The Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards was sponsored by Game Insight, Lockwood Publishing, AppOnboard, Lab Cave and Playdemic.

You can find a full list of the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games awards winners here.