Pokemon Go creator Niantic is cutting 230 jobs, around a quarter of its workforce, after struggling to compete in the highly crowded mobile game market.
The app developer will close its Los Angeles studio, cancel production of a new Marvel game and be “sunsetting” NBA All-World.
Around the same time last year, the company axed 90 of its workers.
Back in 2016, when the world went Pokemon Go-crazy, it seemed the group had created a winning formula – a game that gets people to explore the outdoors.
However, Its follow-up products, which similarly make use of augmented reality, haven’t been able to garner the same popularity.
Niantic chief executive office John Hanke said in an open letter to employees that now apps must be of “dazzling quality” to stand out.
He said: “The mobile market has become crowded and changes to the app store and the mobile advertising landscape have made it increasingly hard to launch new games at scale.
“We also face an AR market that is developing more slowly than anticipated, because of technology challenges and because larger players are slowing down their investments.”
Despite this Niantic will continue to develop for the new wave of mixed and augmented reality.
Products like the Apple Vision Pro or the Meta Quest Pro are just a “steppingstone” to producing “true outdoor devices”, Hanke noted.
The augmented reality market is predicted to be worth US$597bln by 2030, according to grand view research.