Niantic Lays Off 230 Employees, Shutting Down LA Studio

Pokémon GO developer Niantic has closed it’s LA Studio, leading to 230 job losses. CEO John Hanke despatched an electronic mail to his staff stating, “I’ve made the choice to slim our focus for cell sport investments. Particularly, this implies we will probably be closing our LA studio, decreasing our sport platform crew, and making further reductions throughout the corporate… This implies we’re shedding round 230 Niantics.”

Along with this, NBA All-World will shut, and manufacturing will stop for Marvel: World of Heroes as Niantic desires to proceed to help Pokémon Go. “The highest precedence is to maintain Pokémon GO wholesome and rising as a without end sport, whereas we made some changes to the Pokémon GO crew, our funding within the product and crew continues to develop.” stated Hanke.

Pokémon GO has been extensively profitable since its 2016 launch, nevertheless it has has been concerned with quite a few neighborhood controversies, certainly one of which concerned reverting an expanded spawn radius that was favored by gamers. Different Niantic initiatives, from Harry Potter to Pikmin Bloom, haven’t reached the same quantity of recognition.

Other than Pokémon GO, Niantic will proceed to work on Pikmin Bloom, Peridot, and the upcoming Monster Hunter Now. It is usually constructing in direction of creating combined actuality gadgets and AR glasses.

Supply: GamesIndustry.biz