NTDOY - Pokemon Go creator Niantic lays off 230 cancels games as it cuts costs

2023-06-29 12:42:00 ET

Niantic, the video game software company best known for creating the hit augmented reality game Pokemon Go , said on Thursday that it was letting go 230 employees, closing its studio in Los Angeles and making additional cuts across the company in an effort to cut expenses.

San Francisco-based Niantic, which started as an internal startup in Google, added that it was phasing out NBA All-World and ceasing production on Marvel: World of Heroes .

"I have made the decision to narrow our focus for mobile game investments, concentrating on first party games that most strongly embody our core values of location and local social communities," Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke wrote in a blog post. "The mobile gaming market is very mature and only the best and most differentiated titles have a chance to succeed. We also want to increase our focus on building for the emerging class of MR devices and future AR glasses."

Hanke added that the company's top priority is to keep Pokémon Go "healthy and growing as a forever game," while also pointing out that he is confident about other Niantic games, such as Pikmin Bloom , Peridot and Monster Hunter Now .

Niantic developed Pokémon Go in conjunction with Nintendo ( OTCPK:NTDOY ) and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. As of 2019, it had surpassed 1B downloads.

More on the future of gaming

• Nintendo unveils new Mario game, others at Direct presentation
• Nintendo gains as new 'Zelda' sells 10M copies over first three days
• Sony CEO downplays risk of cloud gaming on console market - FT

For further details see: