Why Niantic is a dark horse in the metaverse wars

Today let’s talk about a concept that we can all agree is well defined and no one is yet sick of talking about: the metaverse.

OK, maybe you are a little tired of hearing about it. For a company often accused of being unable to do anything but copy, Facebook-now-Meta’s announcement this summer that it would pivot to the metaverse has already inspired a remarkable number of clones. As David Pierce notes at Protocol today, the tech world has recently announced “a fashion metaverse, an industrial metaverse, an entertainment metaverse, a gaming metaverse, [and] a shark metaverse.” (He forgot Match Group’s forthcoming dating metaverse, though in fairness I’m trying to forget it too.)

But as oppressive as this wave of announcements can feel,...

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