Niantic has had to lay off eight percent of their staff, causing a large number of ongoing projects to be halted.
According to Bloomberg John Hanke has had to inform his staff that he has to lay off 85 to 90 people. The company has been hit by “uncertain economic times and there are several departments where we need to cut costs.”
The studio has had to stop four projects. One of which is Transformers: Heavy Metal. Another project we knew a bit about is Punchdrunk. This was a game that came out of a collaboration between Niantic and a New York theater. The other two projects were known as Blue Sky and Snowball.
Founded in 2010, Niantic was first known as the creator of Ingress, a sort of precursor to Pokémon Go. That game eventually formed the basis of Pokémon Go. With Pokémon Go, Niantic has made more than six billion dollars.
The other games from Niantic do it there and at a lot less well. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite made an impressive twelve million, but that was nothing compared to the release of Pokémon Go. The game grossed $300 million upon release. Pikmin Bloom fared even worse. That game has only brought in $5 million since its release last year.
Location games like Pokémon Go also struggled a bit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other games in this genre, such as Dragon Quest Walk and Jurassic World Alive, also yielded little.
If you look at these problems, it makes sense that Niantic is going to cut spending. “We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about eight percent, so we can focus on our top priorities,” a Niantic spokesperson told Bloomberg. “We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic and support them during this difficult transition.”
Pokémon Go is still running fine and Niantic is certainly not in danger. Other projects from the company are on the way, such as a Tamagotchi game and an NBA game.
