Augmented reality developers are cutting back
Niantic, the company behind the great success of 2016 Pokemon Go, is cutting. A new report shows the company is canceling several projects and cutting jobs.
Bloomberg’s report that four Niantic projects were cancelled, including Transformers games and collaborations with No more sleep Punchdrunk company. It is also expected to cut “about 85 to 90” jobs.
Niantic has achieved great success with Pokemon GoAugmented reality games have become the summer craze for all ages. Pokemon Go still amassing a huge following nearly six years later. Sensor Tower report that Pokemon Go has now surpassed $6 billion in global lifetime spending, across the App Store and Google Play Store.
However, success does not carry over to every subsequent project. Niantic is closed Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Guild In Januaryand while Pikmin Bloom To be pretty neatit also seems to struggle to bottling PokeGo lightning.
Walk around the house
In an email to employees seen by Bloomberg, Niantic CEO John Hanke wrote that the company was “facing uncertain economic times” and needed to further streamline its operations, in order to get through it. any upcoming “economic storms”.
“We recently decided to stop production on a number of projects and reduce our workforce by about 8% to focus on our key priorities,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg. “We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.”
The company recently unveiled a new mobile game, called NBA All-World. It’s a sports game that aims to combine the real world with one-on-one basketball, as well as collectibles and fashion. It also has Peridot, another real world game featuring pet-like creatures, is in development. We’ll see if these projects can help take Niantic out of the storm even further.
