Niantic

• Type: Real-world Software Development Company
• Owners: John Hanke (Founder and CEO)
• Maker: Founded as an internal startup at Google; later became an independent company.

Niantic, Inc. is an American software development company based in San Francisco, California. It is best known for developing augmented reality (AR) mobile games, which overlay gameplay and digital information onto the real world. The company's mission is to use emerging technology to enrich our experiences as human beings in the physical world. While the company itself does not exist within the Wizarding World, it is the creator of the official Harry Potter-themed AR game, Wizards Unite.

Through its mobile game Wizards Unite, Niantic effectively allowed Muggles (the players) to interact with a version of the Wizarding World. The game's primary function was to have players act as new recruits for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force to combat a worldwide event known as “the Calamity.” (video game) Usage of the game involved:

• Exploring the real world: Players would walk in their own neighborhoods to discover magical traces on a map.
• Casting Spells: Upon encountering a magical trace, players would cast spells by tracing glyphs on their device's screen to overcome “Confoundables” and rescue “Foundables” (characters, creatures, and objects from the wizarding world). (video game)
• Gathering Ingredients: Players could gather ingredients from the map to brew Potions, which provided benefits during gameplay. (video game)
• Visiting Inns and Greenhouses: These real-world locations provided players with Spell Energy and Potion ingredients. (video game)
• Wizarding Challenges: Players could team up to battle powerful foes in “Fortresses,” which were virtual locations on the map. (video game)

Niantic was originally formed in 2010 as an internal startup within Google, led by John Hanke. During this time, it developed the AR game Ingress. In 2015, Niantic spun out of Google to become an independent entity. The company achieved massive global success with the launch of Pokémon Go in 2016, which became a cultural phenomenon and proved the viability of location-based AR gaming on a mass scale. Building on this technology and success, Niantic announced in 2017 that it was developing a Harry Potter-themed game in partnership with Warner Bros. Games. Wizards Unite was subsequently launched in 2019. Despite its initial launch, the game did not retain the same level of widespread, long-term engagement as Pokémon Go. Niantic announced the closure of Wizards Unite in late 2021, and the game was officially shut down and removed from app stores on January 31, 2022.

Niantic has no role in the original seven-book storyline, as it is a real-world company. Its significance to the broader Harry Potter franchise is as the developer that expanded the Wizarding World into the medium of augmented reality. Wizards Unite represented a major addition to the official interactive content available to fans, allowing them to engage with the world of Harry Potter in a new, immersive way. The game introduced a new narrative centered around “the Calamity” and featured both familiar characters like Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in new voice-over roles, as well as new characters created for the game. (video game) The game's existence and eventual shutdown mark a distinct chapter in the history of the franchise's expansion beyond the original books and films.

• Wizards Unite was released under the Portkey Games label, a brand from Warner Bros. Games dedicated to creating new Wizarding World mobile and video game experiences that place the player at the center of their own adventure. (Portkey Games)
• The narrative for the game was not written by J.K. Rowling, but it was developed in collaboration with her team to ensure it felt authentic to the Wizarding World. (J.K. Rowling interview)
• The decision to shut down the game was attributed to its inability to maintain a sufficiently large player base to be sustainable, unlike Niantic's flagship title, Pokémon Go.