Niantic, the developer behind popular mobile games such as Pokemon GO, is set to cut numerous jobs and has canceled four games, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
An email sent by Niantic CEO John Hanke, which Bloomberg reviewed, said that the company was âfacing a time of economic turmoil.â Hanke allegedly said that Niantic planned to "further streamline" their operations to "weather any economic storms that may lie ahead.âÂ
According to the report, this led to a number of canceled projects, including a Transformers game, Heavy Metal, which was announced last year. Other canceled projects include; Sleep No More, a collaboration between Niantic and Punchdrunk; Blue Sky, a new title; and Snowball, another new title.
Niantic have also reportedly planned to cut between 85 and 90 jobs.
Niantic is best known for its success with Pokemon GO in 2016 but has since failed to replicate the games success in other projects. The studio developed a number of games in a similar style to Pokemon GO, such as the Harry Potter-inspired Wizards Unite and Pikmin spin-off Pikmin Bloom. Wizards Unite launched in 2019 but was shut down in January this year.
Niantic is currently working on a new NBA augmented reality game called NBA All-World. The game was announced on June 28 and appears to be unaffected by these recent cancelations.