Niantic is prioritizing Pokemon GO and its growth, while "sunsetting" NBA All-World and stopping Marvel: World of Heroes

In a lengthy e-mail from John Hanke to the company's employees, the CEO of Niantic shed light on the organization's future, with titles like Pokemon GO, NBA All-World, and Marvel: World of Heroes being mentioned. It also revealed that the company was laying off more than two hundred employees. Hanke stated that the steps were to ensure Niantic "weather the current challenges in the market and take advantage of the long term opportunity in front of us."

In the e-mail, John Hanke described Niantic's future goals:

"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. 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."

A direct result of this has been their decision to close their LA studio, decreasing their game platform team and conducting further similar reductions and shaving off across the company.

---

Pokemon GO creator will focus on first-party games amidst layoff and sunsetting other titles

With all the changes being implemented, 230 Niantic employees will be laid off. The company will also sunset NBA All-World and close production on Marvel: World of Heroes. The e-mail blames these necessary course corrections on the company expenses growing beyond its revenue.

Hanke also talked about the market:

"We are operating in a tough market environment due to the overall global macroeconomic slowdown, as well as unique challenges in the mobile gaming and AR markets."

The long-term future of Niantic will still revolve around augmented reality. Their top priority remains keeping "Pokemon GO healthy and growing as a forever game." Given the company's massive success with the 2016 title and the mammoth revenue it generates, this move is a no-brainer.

Other games that Hanke is confident in prospects and growth are Pikmin Bloom, Peridot, and Monster Hunter Now. The CEO still contends that they have much work to do for these titles to live up to their potential.

While the Pokemon GO community will be delighted with Niantic's continuing commitment to grow the popular AR title, players have been increasingly frustrated in the past several months. Issues like Remote Raid Pass nerfs and recently reverting a welcomed spawn radius change have landed the developers in hot waters.