Pokemon Go maker Niantic labs to create augmented reality map of the world

NIANTIC Labs may have already brought the concept of augmented reality to the masses with Pokémon Go, but now it's announced plans to take things on step further.

John Hanke, boss of the firm behind the mobile smash hit, has revealed plans to exploit the games millions-strong users to create an "AR map" of the world.

"We want players to build out the game board they want to play on," Hanke told Reuters.

As with all AR games, Pokémon Go uses the real world as the playing area, using real-world locations in-game. As well as using real maps as the 'board' for the game, players catch monsters that seem to appear in real-world locations when viewed through their phones cameras.

The data used in Pokémon Go came from the firm's previous game Ingress, and Hanke has confirmed that they now intend to use Pokémon Go itself to help build out a whole new generation of games.

The idea is that the lorry-loads of location and image data users upload while running around catching monsters as they pop up in those real-world locations can be added to existing maps to form a much more detailed base from which previous games can be built.

With more live data constantly being harvested from players, the firm hopes it can start to use AR for more than just projecting monsters into real-world spaces.

With more images and data from multiple players and multiple angles, the firm thinks it will be able to create virtual structures which replace real-world ones when viewed through your phone's camera.

Crucially, these new items would then appear the same for everyone -- currently the monsters are 'inserted' into the real world by your phone and can't be seen by anyone else.

Niantic isn't planning on keeping the data to itself either, but plans to license it to others so any developer who wants it can use it.

The news comes as Pokémon Go players throw themselves back into the game's gyms after being distracted by the launch of quests and storylines in the game last month.

Niantic is trying to keep players interested with a Battle Showdown event that guarantees better rewards and lets them level up twice as fast as they battle for supremacy of their local landmarks.

The firm also has a Harry Potter game in the works, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite