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That’s odd, because most digital maps insist that apps cite their license when they use them. But the game’s in-app page of legalese doesn’t mention any source for the mapping data, though it does say that Pokémon Go licenses from other Google products like Android. This would suggest that Niantic’s underlying street map and geographic data comes from Google’s own mapping team. Niantic itself was spun out of Alphabet, née Google, last August.
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And OpenStreetMap, a free and open Wikipedia-style map, supports a network of smaller mapping startups, some of which have raised tens of millions.
Nokia spun off its mapping-data team as a separate company last year, valuing their work at $3 billion. Street maps are serious-and expensive-business. And no one seems sure of where the underlying map of streets is coming from. Some Pokémon Go data seems directly taken from that Ingress haul: Portals in Ingress have been transfigured into Pokéstops.īut it’s unclear if Ingress provided all the data used by Pokémon Go. Ingress players collected data about local attractions on behalf of the game. But since its release, it’s become unclear where the the geographical data that describes and defines those streets and landmarks is coming from.Īs my colleague Ian Bogost writes, Pokémon Go closely resembles Ingress, another augmented-reality mobile game produced by Niantic Labs. At its heart is a map of the player’s real-world surroundings, the neighboring streets and landmarks providing both its environment and its obstacles. Pokémon Go is essentially a maps application with a gaming layer. Especially because no one right now seems to know where Pokémon Go’s description of reality comes from. But his experience raises difficult questions about how augmented reality will jell with, well, pre-existing reality. Sheridan, who works in technology and knew about Pokémon Go, handled the newcomers with aplomb. Without giving his consent or having any forewarning, Sheridan’s property had become a virtual neighborhood landmark. Throughout the rest of the day, about 40 more strangers showed up to hang out in front of his home.
His phone hadn’t made an error the night before: Sheridan’s home really was a gym. But they were all looking at him-“looking at the church, through their phones.” Some were leaning on his fence, others milled on the sidewalk. “Have you ever seen people standing near each other, but it’s clear they’re not with each other? That was exactly what was happening,” he says. And then he saw them: A handful of strangers, all standing on the sidewalk in front of his home. While gulping down glassfuls of iced coffee, he stared out the big window to the park across the street. The next morning, he woke up and shuffled to his kitchen. Sheridan lives in an old renovated church, built during the 19th century. “And I thought, that can’t be right,” Sheridan told me. Yet getting home in the wee Saturday hours, he remembered to check into the game and noticed that there seemed to be a gym right over his house. Being of sound heart and mind, he quickly caught a Squirtle.
Sheridan is a designer living in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Players can also assemble near certain structures, like churches and pieces of public art, to battle their Pokémon against computer players at “gyms.” Pokémon Go forces players to wander through the physical world around them-streets, parks, and public spaces-to catch Pokémon.
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Early on Friday evening, hanging out at a bar with friends, Boon Sheridan downloaded Pokémon Go, the new augmented-reality iOS and Android game.