Pokemon Go maker Niantic cuts a quarter of its workforce

The shaper of the Pokemon Go video game, Niantic, says it volition chopped a 4th of its workforce arsenic the gaming manufacture faces a slowdown successful request aft downloads surged during the pandemic.

The steadfast volition besides adjacent its workplace successful Los Angeles and cancel 2 games.

Pokemon Go became a planetary improvement erstwhile it was released successful 2016.

At the time, exertion elephantine Apple said the augmented-reality crippled broke its app store grounds for the astir downloads successful a week.

"The apical precedence is to support Pokemon Go steadfast and increasing arsenic a everlastingly game," Mr Hanke said.

However, helium besides said that since the game's launch, "the mobile marketplace has go crowded and changes to the app store and the mobile advertizing scenery person made it progressively hard to motorboat caller mobile games astatine scale."

A full of 230 workers from crossed Niantic, including those successful its crippled level team, volition beryllium affected by the occupation cuts.

The institution volition besides discontinue its NBA All-World game, which was released successful January, and halt accumulation of its Marvel World of Heroes title.

During the tallness of the Pokemon Go improvement gamers chasing down characters including Pikachu and Snorlax filled nationalist spaces to hunt down the virtual creatures.

In June past year, Niantic said it would cancel 4 projects and trim its workforce by astir 8%.

The latest cuts travel reports successful May that the company's gross from Pokemon Go had fallen.

"We mostly don't remark connected third-party estimates of our gross arsenic they are often incorrect, which is the lawsuit here," a Niantic spokesperson said astatine the time.

"Our gross truthful acold successful 2023 is up connected past year," the spokesperson added.

As a backstage company, Niantic is not required to marque its net reports public.