Pokémon Go developer Niantic fires hundreds of staff, cancels games

NBA All-World and Marvel World of Heroes have both been scrapped

Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go and many other mobile games, has announced that it’s laying off over 200 staff members and canceling a number of recently released and upcoming games.

The news of the layoffs hit staff in an email from Niantic CEO John Hanke, which was later made public on the official Niantic website. In the email, Hanke describes the changes as “difficult” but also important, saying that the company needs to narrow its focus for mobile game investment.

The reason for the layoffs, Hanke says, is because Niantic’s expenses grew faster than its revenue, likely due to the company investing heavily in a number of projects that didn’t pan out. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is probably the highest profile failure, with the game failing to capture attention after its release in 2019 and shutting down less than two years later, but other games have failed to get off the ground too.

Two other games were canceled before officially releasing prior to this announcement, Catan: World Explorers and Transformers: Heavy Metal. Despite that, the company pushed ahead with more licensed games, including NBA All-World, Marvel World of Heroes, Monster Hunter Now, and a game based on its own IP, Peridot.

Of those, NBA All-World and Peridot were the only ones to have been released so far, but the developer’s NBA game won’t be around much longer — Niantic says it’s sunsetting the game, as well as shutting down its Los Angeles development studio. The upcoming Marvel: World of Heroes will also never see the light of day.

It’s not currently known what will happen with other recently released and upcoming games from Niantic. Ingress, the company’s first big hit, will reportedly continue, with development moving out of the LA studio, but the company has yet to comment on Monster Hunter World, Peridot, or Pikmin Bloom.

One thing we do know is that Pokémon Go won’t be going anywhere, despite multiple controversies in recent months. Niantic says that keeping Pokémon Go healthy and growing is its top priority going forward.

Whether that means Niantic will be increasing Pokémon Go’s vision radius again after calling it a bug and pulling it, or making remote raid passes cheaper after angering the community is anyone’s guess. You probably shouldn’t hold your breath, though.