During the Paris 2024 Games, fans from around the world gathered in specially created fan zones to share the excitement of the games and celebrate together. The Netherlands hosted their TeamNL House in the iconic Le Zenith concert hall in Paris, offering Dutch supporters a place to unite and to celebrate their top athletes during the event. To elevate this unique fan experience, Orb Amsterdam and Ocean Outdoor collaborated to create a stunning WebXR activation that brought the Dutch Olympic spirit to life on a monumental scale, powered by Niantic 8th Wall and Niantic VPS.

As developers, brands, and agencies finalize their holiday campaigns, we’re excited to announce a major update to our commercial license.  Starting today, September 4, 2024, commercial licenses for Niantic 8th Wall now start at just $700 per project per month—down from $3,000 per month. 

We hope this reduction makes launching commercial WebAR campaigns more accessible and enables you to create exceptional content for your clients.  Whether you’re planning a big holiday push or looking to explore more with WebAR, our latest pricing change is designed to help you and your clients experience the power of WebAR. 

What is changing?  

Our August update for 8th Wall is here, and with it comes a suite of powerful new features for building immersive real-world experiences. In this release, we're excited to announce Gaussian splatting support in 8th Wall Studio, expanded tooling for 3D modeling and UI design, and comprehensive engagement analytics.

Rock in Rio, the legendary multi-day music festival, has been captivating audiences in Rio de Janeiro since 1985. As the festival prepares to kick off its 40th anniversary on September 13th, 2024, organizers have unveiled an extraordinary celebration that merges the past and present through the power of augmented reality. This year, Rock in Rio is transporting attendees back in time with an immersive WebAR experience powered by Niantic 8th Wall, transforming 40 locations across the vibrant streets of Rio into a real-world AR museum and interactive rock gallery

We’re excited to introduce an all-new way for developers on our Pro Tier to build location-based experiences with Private VPS, now available in Public Beta.

Meet Declan Johnson, an innovative AR developer and a prominent member of the Niantic 8th Wall community. With a background in VR and game development, Declan has been a pivotal figure in creating gamified WebXR content for both marketing and educational purposes. His journey with Niantic 8th Wall began in 2021, and since then, he has become an expert in leveraging the platform's capabilities to build immersive and accessible AR experiences. 

Declan's passion lies in making AR more inclusive and inspiring others to join the XR space. Recently, he has been building with our new visual editor and web gaming engine, Niantic Studio,  to continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in WebXR. We caught up with Declan to learn more about his journey, his work with Niantic Studio so far, and his vision for the future of AR.

We are thrilled to introduce our latest challenge, the "Create & Play Developer Challenge." This exciting event invites you to explore the all-new Niantic Studio, an intuitive, powerful visual editor designed to simplify the creation of immersive WebXR and 3D games. Running from August 5th to September 30th, this challenge offers developers a unique opportunity to showcase their creativity and technical skills while competing for a chance to win from a $10,000 prize pool.

Niantic Studio transforms the web game development process, making it accessible for developers of all skill levels. By providing a visual interface, it bridges the gap between ideation and realization, enabling real-time feedback and simplifying complex development tasks. Whether you're a seasoned developer or new to web game and WebXR development, Niantic Studio offers the tools you need to bring your creative visions to life.

We are thrilled to present the winners of the Explore Together Challenge — an exciting look into the world of location-based AR experiences using VPS.

Over the past two months, we invited the 8th Wall and Lightship communities to create immersive AR experiences that connect the digital and physical worlds. From our initial 'Info + Ideation: Explore Together' session to the hands-on 'Niantic AR Workshop: Mastering Location-Based AR with VPS' and the inspiring 'AR Voices: Bringing Underrepresented History to Life with VPS', participants were provided with a wealth of knowledge and resources to fuel their creativity.

With a substantial prize pool up for grabs, this challenge was the perfect opportunity for developers to demonstrate their skills and push the boundaries of what’s possible with location-based AR. 

These projects have not only showcased technical prowess but have also highlighted the transformative potential of AR in connecting us to our surroundings in new and meaningful ways. Discover the creations that have set new standards in location-based AR storytelling.

Meet Alessandro Straccia, a Creative Technologist from Brazil and a valuable member of the Niantic 8th Wall Community. Alessandro recently released his book, “Interactive Web Development with Three.js and A-Frame.” Alessandro used his eight years of experience with Three.js and as a Creative Technologist to provide many insights for beginners. He also used this book to spark inspiration for developers and non-developers to start exploring the many ways you can build creative and captivating experiences. 

We sat down with Alessandro for a Q&A to delve deeper into his AR journey and explore how he's using Niantic 8th Wall to craft more real-world use cases for WebAR. 

Today, we’re excited to announce Niantic Studio, a new visual editor and web gaming engine for Niantic 8th Wall developers that offers an entirely new way to build immersive 3D and XR experiences. 

Traditionally, building web-based XR and 3D experiences has been a code-intensive process with little visual feedback of what you’re building. But with Niantic Studio, now in public beta, developers have a visual interface that makes everything you create accessible and visible in real time. With this new release, developers and creators of all skill levels can now start building with Niantic 8th Wall.