Pokémon Go Studio Cancels Projects, Cuts More Than 80 Staff As It Struggles To Find Next Hit
Photo: Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket (Getty Images)
The cellular sport firm behind Pokémon Go, Niantic, is struggling to seek out its subsequent massive hit. And now, a brand new report claims the studio canceled a number of tasks and laid off employees members in an effort to “streamline” operations.
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The San Francisco-based writer minimize 85 to 90 jobs and canceled 4 in-development video games, together with a Transformers spin-off introduced final 12 months known as Heavy Metal, in accordance with a Bloomberg report printed at the moment, Bloomberg additional reported that an e mail was despatched from CEO John Hanke to employees that stated the corporate was “facing a time of economic turmoil” and that after earlier efforts to chop prices, Niantic nonetheless wanted to “further streamline our operations in order to best position the company to weather any economic storms that may lie ahead.”
Other reportedly canceled video games embody Hamlet, a deliberate collaboration between Niantic and theatre firm Punchdrunk, and Blue Sky and Snowball, but it surely’s unclear if these had been deliberate titles or inner codenames.
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Niantic discovered massive success with 2016’s AR-powered Pokémon Go, but it surely nonetheless hasn’t been capable of replicate that success. In 2019, the studio launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, but it surely by no means discovered a big viewers and was ultimately shut down earlier this 12 months. Other video games based mostly on Pikmin and Catan have additionally did not set the world on hearth.
Read More: Niantic Mapped The World. Now They’re Mapping You
In a press release despatched to Kotaku, a Niantic spokesperson confirmed the information of the layoffs and defined it deliberate to proceed to help Pokémon Go and its different video games and tasks.
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“We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about eight percent to focus on our key priorities,” stated Niantic. “We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic, and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.
The company also told Kotaku that this move will allow the company to focus more on “new experiences” and that it’s going to “continue investing in the future of AR.”
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While it’s true Niantic will maintain investing in new video games—the corporate did simply announce a brand new venture with the NBA in any case—it’s unlikely that these laid off will discover consolation in that reality. I can’t think about watching your organization proceed to make billions of {dollars} on a single sport whereas shedding employees is an effective approach to increase morale.