Despite Pokémon GO Success, Niantic Forced to Make Drastic Changes In Order to Save Itself

Published 06/30/2022, 8:15 AM EDT

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No matter how successful a company is, it must take challenging steps during difficult times. The developers who created Pokemon GO, Niantic, had to take tough steps like canceling four projects and firing 8% of the staff members.

The San Francisco-based video game development company Niantic was established in 2010. However, the company came to the spotlight in 2016 after releasing Pokemon GO. Soon after its release, it became a colossal hit, with over 1 billion downloads since the game’s release.

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This game uses AR technology, which helped boost the game’s sales. The Pokemon fans were excited to spot Pokemon in the real world. Niantic bagged around $1 billion per year from the game. After six years, Pokemon GO is still among fan-favorite mobile games.

Why are Pokemon GO developers taking tough steps?

Niantic saw a lot of success with Pokemon GO. However, they failed to replicate that success after the Pocket Monster game. In 2019, Niantic came up with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, but it could not impress the audience, so the developers had to stop the game earlier in 2022.

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The failure to replicate has led the company to losses. So, the San Francisco-based video game company had to cancel four of its future projects and fire 8%, that is 85-90 people from the company.

A Niantic spokesperson reported, “We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about 8% to focus on our key priorities. We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic, and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.”

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Last year, Niantic announced a Transformers game, Heavy Metal, was one of the canceled projects. The other canceled projects include titles like Snowball and Blu Sky. The last project in the store was a collaboration with Punchdrunk, a theatrical company that came up with the play Sleep No More to develop a game called Hamlet.

Moreover, the Pokemon GO developers would continue upgrading the Pocket Monster games. Meanwhile, they still have a project on hand to work on. Niantic recently announced joining hands with National Basketball Association. The upcoming game would be called NBA All-World. It might be multiplayer, where players can play against other players in the neighborhood.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Ranking the best Pokemon across exciting Generation 8 titles

What are your thoughts about the challenging steps that Niantic had to take? Do you play Pokemon GO?

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Written by:

Ripan Majumdar

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Ripan Majumdar is an F1 writer at Essentially Sports. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's in Science from West Bengal State University, Kolkata. Ripan is a massive Red Bull Racing and Sergio Perez fan, and has been following the sport for over the past few years.
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Edited by:

Pritam Priyedarshi