Niantic alsoQuietly announced layoffs, 230 employees will be affected, and the studio in Los Angeles will be closed, and the company will cancelNBA All-WorldAndMarvel World of HeroesTwo licensed games.
Niantic CEO John Hanke said the layoffs were mainly due to adjustments to the company's investment strategy in the mobile gaming market, with the goal of increasing the differentiation of game content and thereby gaining greater development opportunities in the increasingly mature mobile gaming market.
Despite canceling two licensed games, NBA All-World and Marvel World of Heroes, Niantic emphasized that it will maintain the operations of games like Pokémon GO. Furthermore, the previously announced development of augmented reality and mixed reality glasses integration applications will continue.
As for the main reason for the layoffs, Niantic stated that the pandemic has attracted more players to play its games in the past few years, so it has increased the proportion of employee recruitment and invested more in content development. However, after the epidemic stabilized, it failed to bring corresponding revenue growth, resulting in the need to balance expenses through layoffs.
In addition, John Hanke also stated that the development of augmented reality applications is slower than expected, but he still hopes to drive new profits through augmented reality technology in the future.
