Niantic Inc., the creator of the hit mobile game Pokemon GO, will lay off 85 to 90 people, roughly 8% of its workforce, according to internal emails reviewed by Bloomberg.
The San Francisco-based company will also be cancelling production of four upcoming projects, including a Transformers game called Heavy Metal.
Niantic was founded in 2010 as a studio focused on developing augmented reality games that blend virtual experiences with the real world. It released Pokemon GO in 2016, which became a viral success and at one point was estimated to have earned the company $1 billion in revenue per year.
However, the user base of Pokemon GO has dropped precipitously from its heyday and subsequent games the company has developed have not reached near its heights of popularity. Its 2019 game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, was shut down this year after it failed to find and audience.
"We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about eight percent to focus on our key priorities," the company said in a statement provided via email. "We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic and we are supporting them through this difficult transition. This means we can focus on our most important priorities, including Pokémon GO and a select set of new experiences, as well as the Lightship platform. This increased focus, as well our strong core business, puts us in a position to weather the broader economic uncertainty many companies are facing and continue investing in the future of AR."
