Niantic, a video game and software development company behind the popular AR mobile games Ingress and Pokemon Go, announced the acquisition of New Zealand-based augmented reality studio NZXR. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Following the deal’s closure, the entire NZXR team will join Niantic.

NZXR was formed by a group of former employees at the Wellington-based Magic Leap team who were laid off at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team’s work includes an AR skateboarding game Skatrix, interactive theater experiences, and multiplayer AR demos. The team will contribute to the design and development of multiplayer AR experiences at Niantic.

Analyst QuickTake: The new acquisition builds on its acquisition of WebAR development platform 8th Wall earlier this month. Niantic hoped to strengthen its development platform by leveraging 8th Wall’s Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) engine that delivers markerless AR content. Niantic was valued at USD 9 billion in a USD 300 million Series D funding round in November 2021.