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.
I’m astonished by how long-lived PoGo has been. I gave up on it years ago after moving to a more rural place but now I’m back in a big city and I see people playing it every time I go to the park.
I also quit playing in April 2022. I remember reading somewhere about how mobile games like these keep you playing, with incentives like daily logins, etc. So I decided to not play for a week to see if I missed it at all. I never went back to it for the simple reason I shouldn’t have to do daily “maintenance” to enjoy a game for just a weekend.
I do know people who enjoy the game more casually, which is what approach I wish I had taken with it. I feel for those employees who are losing their jobs and wish them speedy employment elsewhere.
