"Pokemon Go's success is because of Pokemon": Twitter and Reddit react to Niantic cancelling projects and cutting staff

sportskeeda.com:

It was earlier revealed that Niantic, the creator of the popular AR title Pokemon Go, has canceled several of its projects and let go of multiple staff members. The news of canceled projects is never a joyous occasion for any gamer. Bloomberg's report on the matter states that Niantic has pulled the plug on four titles in their latest move.

The report comes a day after the company announced an official NBA AR title called NBA All-World. The real-world mobile game is slated to bring the beloved sport of basketball to life in a unique way, unleashing a new era of hoops.

Fans were quick to point out Niantic's failure to replicate the success of Pokemon Go and posited that the developer succeeded because of the Pokemon brand.

A point of commonality across community discussions on the matter was that the sheer success of Pokemon Go was thanks to the Pokemon brand and the sense of love, nostalgia, and emotional attachment that players have for it. According to numbers crunched by Sensor Tower, the game has brought in $1 billion annually since its launch.

Even after six years, the average monthly player count of Pokemon Go has hovered around 75-80 million player counts, with around 650k estimated concurrent players live at the time of writing this article, according to ActivePlayer.IO.

While this formula of playing in the real world worked perfectly for Pokemon, the same is not possible for all games. As players have noted in their comments, Niantic has repeatedly struggled to capture the success of this one title with any other. The 2019 game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite did not replicate the same hype and was shut down earlier this year in January.

Pikmin Bloom, the 2021 AR game from Niantic, was eerily similar to Pokemon Go yet