[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.] At Niantic, we see the transformative potential of augmented reality to make lives better for people, especially our Niantic Explorers around the world. AR can enrich daily routines like taking a walk in your neighbourhood or visiting your favourite local spot. There are tremendous benefits to getting outside and connecting with one another, and this is how we envision the true benefits of AR technology: in service of people and communities. We’ve enabled many moments and memories through our signature Niantic experiences and we’re working to enable even more planet-scale experiences for next-generation AR hardware. But this is only the beginning. When we talk about AR, we are talking about the beginnings of a fundamental shift in computing where the world itself (the atoms) comes alive with information and experience (the bits). While this shift will occur over time, important software and hardware advances are laying the foundation today.