Pokemon Go Dev Lays Off 230 Employees, Marvel And NBA Games Cancelled
Pokemon Go developer Niantic has announced that it will be moving away from in-house development and shutting down its studio in Los Angeles, resulting in 230 people being laid off. It also announced that it will be sunsetting NBA All-World and stopping production on Marvel: World of Heroes. Niantic has claimed in a blog post that the reason behind the cancellations is so it can focus on games that "most strongly embody our core values of location and local social communities."
In the same blog post, Niantic reassures its fans that the company remains committed to a bunch of other titles, including Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, Peridot, Ingress, and the upcoming Monster Hunter Now. It also explains that its shutting down its LA Studio to "free up resources" to help it prepare for the emergence of MR devices and the future of AR glasses.
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That's the official reason anyway, though a report from Kotaku has suggests that there are more reasons behind the dramatic shift than Niantic would have the puiblic believe. According to an internal article seen by Kotaku that was sent to employees earlier today, Niantic founder John Hanke explains that the decision came mainly due to the fact that "expenses [grew] faster than revenue" this year, pointing to a surge in revenue during the Covid-19 pandemic as a most likely cause.
He also claims that Niantic has not been as competitive in the mobile market as the company wanted it to be, claiming that multiple titles have lacked "strong monetization and a social core" and that the company has "not met our goals in all of these areas."
"Today’s highly competitive mobile gaming market requires dazzling quality and
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