4 ms·

The company knows how to make great VR experiences but this is a bizarre move by Google. Historically, they've not been great in the game space (look at Ingress

The company knows how to make great VR experiences but this is a bizarre move by Google. Historically, they've not been great in the game space (look at Ingress, or does anybody remember Lively.com)? I suppose you could argue this is their response to that but its not clear what their end goal is here (more exclusive content)?

max_ 9y ago
Pokemon Go ?
flor1s 9y ago
I loved Ingress! Of course after spinning off Niantic (the team behind Ingress), that spinoff went on to develop the highly successful Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go contains many of the gameplay elements of Ingress, but the packaging is a lot better. It seems like Google spun off Niantic because under Google they did not have the opportunity to make licensing deals with companies like Nintendo. Some of the motivation behind selling Niantic can be found here: https://www.recode.net/2016/7/12/12153722/google-niantic-pokemon-go-spin-out https://www.recode.net/2016/7/12/12153722/google-niantic-pok...
- RubyPinch 9y ago
  The thing is, Niantic learnt one bad thing from Google: The habit of near-zero community interaction and support. The player base for Pokemon Go felt very frustrated at multiple times (especially anyone who had a rooted phone, completely disallowed to play, but that didn't stop cheaters!) They only very recently added PR members to the probably largest PokemonGo forum around, https://redd.it/68nxzx https://redd.it/68nxzx
ehsankia 9y ago
Until last month they had Noah Falstein as a Game Design Lead, not sure what he did there but it seems like Google is trying to dabble in it, especially with VR. http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/google-games-guy-exits/ http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/google-games-guy-exits/
zitterbewegung 9y ago
Their end goal is to give more resources to a VR developer so that they can increase the adoption of VR games and devices. When they do that their VR ads ( which currently show up on YouTube I have seen one or two) will get more click through and engagement . A good VR ad can give you minutes of engagement and people signing up with their email (went to a VR meet up where this occurred).
killin_dan 9y ago
Ingress is great, what are you talking about?
hkmurakami 9y ago
Ingress was a social phenomenon in Japan and a smashing success.

max_ 9y ago

Pokemon Go ?

flor1s 9y ago

I loved Ingress! Of course after spinning off Niantic (the team behind Ingress), that spinoff went on to develop the highly successful Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go contains many of the gameplay elements of Ingress, but the packaging is a lot better. It seems like Google spun off Niantic because under Google they did not have the opportunity to make licensing deals with companies like Nintendo. Some of the motivation behind selling Niantic can be found here: https://www.recode.net/2016/7/12/12153722/google-niantic-pokemon-go-spin-out https://www.recode.net/2016/7/12/12153722/google-niantic-pok...

RubyPinch 9y ago
The thing is, Niantic learnt one bad thing from Google: The habit of near-zero community interaction and support. The player base for Pokemon Go felt very frustrated at multiple times (especially anyone who had a rooted phone, completely disallowed to play, but that didn't stop cheaters!) They only very recently added PR members to the probably largest PokemonGo forum around, https://redd.it/68nxzx https://redd.it/68nxzx

ehsankia 9y ago

Until last month they had Noah Falstein as a Game Design Lead, not sure what he did there but it seems like Google is trying to dabble in it, especially with VR. http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/google-games-guy-exits/ http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/google-games-guy-exits/

zitterbewegung 9y ago

Their end goal is to give more resources to a VR developer so that they can increase the adoption of VR games and devices. When they do that their VR ads ( which currently show up on YouTube I have seen one or two) will get more click through and engagement . A good VR ad can give you minutes of engagement and people signing up with their email (went to a VR meet up where this occurred).

killin_dan 9y ago

Ingress is great, what are you talking about?

hkmurakami 9y ago

Ingress was a social phenomenon in Japan and a smashing success.