Niantic is making some major organizational changes, including layoffs, game shutdowns, and the closure of its Los Angeles studio, according to an email from Niantic CEO John Hanke shared on the company’s website. The changes are designed to narrow the company’s focus, especially on developing and maintaining its cash cow, Pokémon Go.
I just quit (and so did my partner) PoGo a couple of months ago when they killed remote raids. They’d been removing the changes they made during Covid that really improved the game for rural and homebound players, and the remote raid changes were the last straw for me (doubling the price to $2 a raid… wtf?). We played at launch for a few months and came back in 2018 and were daily, paying players with a weekly remote raid group. Never missed a community day, both own Gotchas, both level 42+, but we deleted the app and haven’t been back.
So I wish them all the best with their renewed focus on PoGo, but we won’t be back.