We're talking trend fatigue! 💤 Trend-hopping gets clicks, but at what cost to authenticity? Final takeaway: use trends with purpose. Niantic Spatial’s @tomglover.bsky.social put it best when he said “It’s better to lean into strategic story-telling than just the meme.” ✨ #YAS2026 #Battenhall

Mapping the future of cities starts here. 🌍 SF Mayor Daniel Lurie visited the Niantic Spatial office, then joined CEO John Hanke for a walk through Fisherman’s Wharf to see how geospatial AI and Niantic VPS help robots & AR glasses understand the real world.

This week @nianticspatial.bsky.social announced an exciting new technology partnership with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS to bring the work of @hideokojimaen.bsky.kojimaproductions.jp into the real world. youtu.be/oKyj6CDUH64?...

Meet Dot, a cute local guide that helps you discover your surroundings. We partnered with Niantic Spatial and Snap, and developed the concept, UX and the AI brain that drives the experience.

#creative #technology #AR #AI #context #peridot #hyperlocal

Niantic Spatial SDK brings centimeter-accurate outdoor VPS, live scene meshing, and semantic segmentation to Quest 3 & Quest 3S. Details here: www.uploadvr.com/niantic-spat...

More news today from @NianticSpatial at #AWE - we’re teaming up with the imaginative minds at @MeowWolf to expand their universe beyond physical walls and into the world of #AR www.cnet.com/tech/computi...

More exciting news from @nianticspatial.bsky.social today. We've announced a partnership with Snap Inc. to build a next generation #AI map that will serve as the foundation for #AR glasses and AI agents to understand, navigate and interact with the real world.

New: I chatted with Niantic CEO John Hanke and other company brass about the bombshell decision to sell off Pokemon Go and the rest of the games business and pivot to enterprise AI.  “It was like two bodies running a three-legged race,” one investor said. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

It’s a big day for @niantic-labs.bsky.social! We’ve reached an agreement for Scopely to acquire our games business and we’re spinning off our pioneering geospatial AI business into a new company, Niantic Spacial Inc.

Monster Hunter Wilds is relentlessly awesome. I used to play this game with my hands clawed around a PSP, fighting dragons on a tiny screen. It's so huge & beautiful now that it takes my breath away. Veterans be aware: the challenge starts AFTER the story's over www.theguardian.com/games/2025/f...

Good to see that Peter Mandelson used, um, diplomatic language when @georgewparker.bsky.social asked him about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein on.ft.com/4hmbvNG

Meta sinks more than $100bn into virtual reality and smart glasses bet https://www.ft.com/content/c513949e-3fc1-43a2-9358-363dff823bc1

We've been chatting with some friends of Safe In Our World! Starting with @cherebi.bsky.social 💚 We asked Amber for her thoughts on loneliness and how video games can help us build friendships and a sense of self. Here's what she said about her own experience.

DeepSeek challenges the "bigger is better" narrative underpinning the AI arms race in recent years and suggests we may see more investment into smaller startups (Kevin Roose/New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

oh my god the fuckers are trying to destroy the best thing about Leicester Square so they can make a horrible windowless coffin hotel

As well as Pokémon Go's first battle pass ahead of Unova Go Tour Global, we're also getting shiny Meloetta Masterwork research, a Pokédex update, and what sounds like an increase in wild spawns in both "number" and area 👀 A big week!

Between February 1st and March 31st, playing Monster Hunter Now will grant you rewards for Monster Hunter Wilds:

Amazing ❤️

Beautiful if frosty morning in Stratford for a day of swimming 🏊‍♀️

I cannot recommend enough that you read this op-ed written by Peter Thiel in the FT today (free to read!) for a direct look inside the mind and grievances of the libertarian tech billionaires who have helped Trump to power - and what they want next www.ft.com/content/a46c...

The Silo is one of the best things on TV. Such a great end of work Friday bonus.

Scott Stein wraps up the smart glasses news from CES www.cnet.com/tech/computi...

VG247 budget is committed to existing contracts in the short term, but over the next few months I'm anticipating some changes - freelancers, especially those with good interview and feature experience, make yourselves known.

The Video Games Industry Memo reader starter pack is up now. Get yourself added to it by liking this tweet ❤️ Or follow the people contained within it by thwacking the link below👇 go.bsky.app/HxU4bNy

Apple steps up expansion of its News platform https://www.ft.com/content/48685786-f0fc-43dd-8bd4-c62011af8af1

Sources: Apple plans to expand Apple News in more countries and considered building locally focused news coverage in the UK; Apple News has 125M monthly users (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Planning a summer holiday? Here are the dates for this year’s #PokemonGOFest2025! 🌏 Osaka, Japan: May 29–June 1 🌎Jersey City, New Jersey: June 6–8 🌍Paris, France: June 13–15 Stay tuned for more information!

Wanna know my top Mobile Games of the year? Well, I wrote about them for @pocketgamercom.bsky.social: www.pocketgamer.com/features/jup...

The #Marvel writers must have so much fun with ‘What if?’ What’s your favourite character in the series?

Best not…

The limit on Pokémon and item storage limit capacity have each been expanded by 500. The Pokémon storage limit has been increased to 9,300. The item capacity limit has been increased to 8,300. More details: pokemongohub.net/post/news/po... #PokemonGO

‘Put on #DrWho at the Proms, your dad would have loved it’ - Don’t mind if I do.

Here’s a starter pack for Niantic and some of the teams building for the future of #AR. go.bsky.app/2PHJyRn

2025 is going to be exciting: Meta to add display to Ray-Bans as race over smart glasses intensifies on.ft.com/3BuHGeo

Superman. The OG. Can’t wait to see what James Gunn has done with it. youtu.be/uhUht6vAsMY?...

Jesus Christ what is coming in January? Can't any of this wait?

The Beeb really dropped the ball here. What a loss www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Christmas card writing support

The new season of Monster Hunter Now started today. You can now create your own personalised Palico companion, explore the tundra, and try the switch axe. And new monsters obvs. youtube.com/shorts/V_-nY...

You can now step into your own 3D scans using a Meta Quest with Niantic’s beta WebXR ‘Into the Scaniverse’ experience. Nice. youtu.be/yJ-5Qz3nHpM?...

Demi Lovato is joining forces with Peridot on the Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative this December! youtu.be/zNGsOjEunG4?...

The Pokemon GO BAFTA is reassuringly heavy

The team behind Peridot shows what ‘gaming for good’ can look like playperidot.com/news/social-...

Demand pricing for #Wicked on a Saturday night - but do we have enough moments like this to save cinema? Let’s hope so. It was a joyful experience with a full audience, and a spontaneous round of applause at the end. Cynthia Erivo for an Oscar anyone?

Always nice to be back at the FT (and a festive City).Talking about the prospects for AR/AI glasses (spoiler: 2025 is going to be exciting).

Niantic’s Peridot team has had a stellar year, on the front line of AR and AI game design for exciting new hardware from Snap, Meta and now Apple Vision Pro. And the 10+ award wins to boot. With plenty more in store for 2025.

Now we have @nica.bsky.social (Nicole Mezzasalma) looking at social intelligence: the policies, playbooks and best practice for AI use in 2025

George Brett was the star of the show at the @battenhall.com social trends event, on the opportunities presented by social first everything. #battenhall