Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go, has announced that it is laying off 230 employees and axing two games as it grapples with a turbulent gaming market.
The cancelled titles include Marvel: World of Heroes, which was being previewed in select countries ahead of its official launch, and the recently released NBA All-World.
In an email to staff published on the firm’s website, Niantic boss John Hanke essentially described the layoffs as the results of a Covid hangover.
The company had grown too fast during the pandemic — when people were gaming like mad during lockdowns — but is now being squeezed by a global economic slowdown, he said.
Hanke also admitted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to launch new games in a “crowded” mobile-gaming market.
Niantic is known for its augmented-reality games that make players compete in mini-games while outdoors. The format was introduced to the world in 2016 with the smash hit Pokémon Go game.
However, Niantic has struggled to replicate that title’s success despite striking major partnerships with entertainment and sports franchises.
In 2019, it launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, only to shut it down last year due to a lack of an audience. A game based on the board game Catan was also unsuccessful.
Lacking another hit title, Niantic announced last summer that it was cutting around 85 to 90 jobs, or roughly eight per cent of staff, and shelving a slew of products.
The cancelled projects encompassed Heavy Metal, a Transformers game that Niantic announced last year; and Hamlet, a collaboration between Niantic and Punchdrunk, the theatrical company behind the popular interactive play Sleep No More. An additional two projects called Blue Sky and Snowball were also shelved.
The latest round of layoffs will inevitably raise questions about Niantic’s future and its remaining high-profile products. According to Hanke, the company will now focus its resources on a smaller batch of titles.
Going forward, Niantic will devote its efforts to turning Pokémon Go into a “forever game”, and on making a success of newer games including Pikmin Bloom, a title based on the Nintendo series, creature-slaying game Monster Hunter Now, and Peridot, the virtual pet game it released in May.
“We are reducing and focusing our platform team in line with the reduced number of games we are building, with the goal to do less, better,” Hanke said.
