Big Heritage first developed a partnership with Niantic Inc in 2017 that has gone on to set a standard for both heritage companies and software developers. Niantic is building a state of the art planet-scale augmented reality platform, who developed the ever popular Pokemon GO mobile game in partnership with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Big Heritage were the first community heritage company to partner with the organisation, and together produced a completely unique event that merged Chester’s history with gaming and technology.

The event was a world-exclusive first which ran over a single weekend. Attendees were invited to take part in a number of fun trail activities, with in-game and real-world surprises. Accessible for the first time to the public in 20 years, the Castle was home to a Gyms and a number of PokéStops. Historic camps and characters were scattered across the city, handing out exclusive prizes and keepsakes. 

The event ran over a single weekend and saw 20,000 new visitors were brought into the city and had an estimated impact of £4 million on the visitor economy of Chester. Chester is now renowned worldwide for being the best place in the UK to play Niantic games – with numerous users visiting Chester solely for this purpose.