Support NeoGAF

[Spyxos]

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has become the latest major game studio to announce serious layoffs and other significant changes. The company's boss, John Hanke, notified staffers of a drastic change to the company's organization and outlook that includes layoffs, a studio closure, and game cancellations.

Niantic is closing its Los Angeles studio and making cuts to the company's headcount at other offices. Additionally, NBA All-World is going offline and the upcoming game Marvel: World of Heroes is now canceled. In total, Niantic is cutting about 230 jobs.


Hanke said these changes are the result of Niantic spending more than it is earning back in revenue. Like other companies, Niantic saw a surge in revenue during Covid, and the company staffed up and spent more to "pursue growth more aggressively." But now, Hanke said revenue at Niantic has returned to pre-Covid levels and the new games that the company launched "have not delivered revenues commensurate with those investments."

The changes announced today will "bring expenses and revenue back into line while preserving our core assets and long term upside," Hanke said.

Hanke went on to cite the "overall global macroeconomic slowdown" as a reason for the layoffs, along with what he said were "unique challenges" in the increasingly crowded mobile market. Additionally, Hanke said the AR market is not taking off as fast as the company imagined.

Pokemon Go Dev Cancels Marvel Game, Lays Off 230 People

Niantic is undergoing major changes.

www.gamespot.com

 

[Tams]

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has become the latest major game studio to announce serious layoffs and other significant changes. The company's boss, John Hanke, notified staffers of a drastic change to the company's organization and outlook that includes layoffs, a studio closure, and game cancellations.

Niantic is closing its Los Angeles studio and making cuts to the company's headcount at other offices. Additionally, NBA All-World is going offline and the upcoming game Marvel: World of Heroes is now canceled. In total, Niantic is cutting about 230 jobs.


Hanke said these changes are the result of Niantic spending more than it is earning back in revenue. Like other companies, Niantic saw a surge in revenue during Covid, and the company staffed up and spent more to "pursue growth more aggressively." But now, Hanke said revenue at Niantic has returned to pre-Covid levels and the new games that the company launched "have not delivered revenues commensurate with those investments."

The changes announced today will "bring expenses and revenue back into line while preserving our core assets and long term upside," Hanke said.

Hanke went on to cite the "overall global macroeconomic slowdown" as a reason for the layoffs, along with what he said were "unique challenges" in the increasingly crowded mobile market. Additionally, Hanke said the AR market is not taking off as fast as the company imagined.

Pokemon Go Dev Cancels Marvel Game, Lays Off 230 People

Niantic is undergoing major changes.

www.gamespot.com

No sympathy here. It was obvious it was only going to be temporary.

If you, as investor, employee, etc. bet on the growth they saw being sustainable... well, you're an idiot.

 

[Stitch]

Like other companies, Niantic saw a surge in revenue during Covid

Because the game was less greedy. You were able to spin and attack pokestops & arenas from far away and you got more items which made the game more fun to play, but then they removed all the cool lockdown features and tried to monetize the shit out of that stale game. Every time they hype up new features it just means that they want you to spend even more money.

"hey we put some stupid hats on Pikachu, time to give us more money"

 

[Trogdor1123]

Because the game was less greedy. You were able to spin and attack pokestops from far away and you got more items which made the game more fun to play, but then they removed all the cool lockdown features and tried to monetize the shit out of that stale game. Every time they hype up new features it just means that they want you to spend even more money.

"hey we put some stupid hats on Pikachu, time to give us more money"

I think they are still making huge amounts of money on this still too. I doubt it’s at the million dollars a day it used to be at though

 

[Robb]

Couldn’t care less about this studio and their games. That’s a lot of people though, hope they get back in their feet.

 

[Kdad]

Slimming down for that Microsoft offer that is incoming. Ingress was great until t wasn't.

 

[DR3AM]

Still can’t believe they made that shitty NBA game

 

[Stitch]

I think they are still making huge amounts of money on this still too.

Sure, but not because the game mechanics are especially great or anything. It has bugs, it's lacking all kinds of cool features... but it's a pokemon game. They tried to make the same thing with different IPs (Harry Potter, NBA) and they bombed. The Pokemon IP is keeping this alive.

I'm actually kinda surprised that theeir Pikmin game is still going