Niantic Undergoes Layoffs, Cancels Four Games as it Struggles to Move Beyond Pokémon Go
Niantic seems to take into account the fact that nothing is as big as the old Pokemon GO. Unfortunately, that means the number of projects canceled, and worse, layoffs.
according to New Bloomberg Report, Niantic CEO John Hanke informs company that 8% of its staff have been dismissed as the company faces “cutting costs in various areas” and “era of economic turmoil” Did. .. “
In addition, 4 projects have been cancelled. One is the mobile AR partnership with Hasbro and TOMY announced last year, called Transformers: Heavy Metal. The other was announced a year ago as a collaboration between Promenade Theater Production Sleep No More, Niantic behind Punchdrunk and a New York-based immersive theater company. The two additional projects that were canceled are reported to have been codenamed Blue Sky and Snowball.
Niantic has been around since 2010 and was initially known for its location-based community game Ingress. However, it has become famous for partnering with Pokémon Go’s Pokémon Company, which uses the same location-based mechanism it developed for Ingress and has proven to be a consistent revenue driver since its launch in 2016. The final estimate from mobile analytics group Sensor Tower is $ 6 billion in lifetime revenue, with an average annual revenue of $ 1 billion, while maintaining consistent popularity.
However, other games have not achieved the same level of success.apart from A solid enough launch month with global player spending over $ 12 million, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was far behind Pokemon Go’s $ 300 million launch and shut down earlier this year to keep up. Pikmin Bloom is getting worse, with global revenues of over $ 5 million since its launch last year, but still live.
Given the IP involved and the success of Pokémon Go itself, the lack of traction in either game may sound shocking, but in reality it’s at the same level, whether Niantic or not. No other location-based game has caught the attention of. For example, Minecraft Earth shut down last year because it struggled to maintain a location-based game inside COVID-19.And combined Pokemon Go’s closest recent rivals, Dragon Quest Walk and Jurassic World Alive. I couldn’t even bring in half of what Pokemon GO did in the first quarter of this year..
In all these struggles, Niantic’s significant scale-up trajectory following Pokemon Go’s unexpected explosive success and scaled when other licensed games couldn’t touch its popularity level. It’s easy to see the subsequent decision to go down. Unfortunately, it’s a decision that has influenced humans.
“We recently decided to stop production of some projects, reduce employees by about 8% and focus on key priorities,” said a Niantic spokeswoman for Bloomberg. .. “We appreciate the contributions of those who leave Niantic and support them through this difficult transition.”
With Pokemon GO stable, it seems unlikely that the entire Niantic is at risk. There are still several new projects underway, including the Tamagotchi-like game Peridot announced in April and the NBA All-World, an NBA-licensed game published by Niantic and developed by Hyp Games yesterday.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN.She can be found on twitter @duckvalentine..
