Niantic has officially announced that they will be sponsoring two community projects going forward: The Silph Road and Silph.gg.
Both of these projects were brought to life by Reddit’s /r/thesilphroad community, and made way to a wide array of awesome community projects like the Nest Atlas, GO Community Map, in-person handshakes and more.
The sponsorship comes in at a perfect time, according to Dronpes, one of The Silph Road founders. TSR has seen some rocky moments in recent months, with declining ad revenues making it hard to keep servers alive.
Niantic has agreed to cover Silph’s operating costs so we can run ad-free (and without the risk of imminent shutdown we were facing)
Here are the full details from the official Niantic post:
- Ensuring that Silph Road stays ad-free. While The Silph Road is sponsored by Niantic, you’ll never have to worry about third-party ads on their websites, including Silph.gg and TheSilphRoad.com.
- Development of new ways to connect players to Niantic and each other. We’re creating new ways for players to meet, play, and talk to each other to help reconnect local communities and create avenues for Niantic to support them.
- A new Community Ambassador Program. Created and maintained by Niantic, we’ll be working with Silph Road to launch a brand new program that provides perks and rewards for active communities and their leaders who run in-person events. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on this program and how you can join!
- We know that thriving communities are the backbone of our game, and we’re excited to partner with Silph and their years of community support to re-ignite in-person gameplay.
Congraulations to both parties – we hope that the sponsorship brings back the Nest Atlas in its full glory, and potentially allows for new, community driven projects.
