Niantic to lay off 230 people and cancel NBA and Marvel games

The CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, has informed its employees that they are going to reduce their investments in the mobile games market with features, something that is concrete in the total closure of its studio in Los Angeles, the dismissal of 230 workers and the cancellation of the NBA All-World and Marvel: World of Heroes games.

This reduction in the size of the company is due to the fact that its expenses have been growing faster than revenues. Like other technologies, Niantic expanded its workforce and investments during the pandemic (acquisition of 8th Wall), but the slowdown in the economy, a slower-than-expected development of the AR market and the low profitability of its latest games now forces them to make adjustments.

Since the launch of Pokémon GO, the mobile market has become saturated and changes in the app store and the mobile advertising landscape have made it increasingly difficult to launch new mobile games on a large scale. We are also facing an AR market that is developing more slowly than expected, due to technological challenges and the fact that the big players are slowing down their investments,” says John Hanke

However, from the company they continue to believe that in the long term augmented reality is the future of computing, and they define the viewers Meta Quest Pro and Apple Vision Pro as intermediate steps towards true outdoor augmented reality devices, such as their own AR glasses, in which they will continue to invest in collaboration with Qualcomm.

Investment in MRI devices and future augmented reality glasses will continue, but the top priority in the current situation will be to keep Pokémon GO healthy and growing, although there have also been layoffs in his team. Niantic will also work on making its other games with AR features (Pikmin Bloom, Peridot and Monster Hunter Now) a success in terms of user retention, revenue and profitability.