We have some development over in Niantic’s world, and it might mean something good for Pokemon Go.
As you know, Niantic is the company behind games such as Marvel: World of Heroes and NBA All-World. So Pokemon Go is not the only game that Niantic is developing. Recently, it came to light that Niantic wants to focus on Pokemon Go and keep it fresh and exciting. How ironic this is given the situation Pokemon Go is in right now.
John Hanke shared an extensive e-mail, where he explains that Niantic is deciding to cancel the production of the Marvel game, and sunsetting NBA All-World. He states that they want to focus on the mobile game industry and do the following:
“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.”
Here is another part of the e-mail:
“Why are we making this change?
The answer is straightforward – we have allowed our expenses to grow faster than revenue. In the wake of the revenue surge we saw during Covid, we grew our headcount and related expenses in order to pursue growth more aggressively, expanding existing game teams, our AR platform work, new game projects and roles that support our products and our employees. Post Covid, our revenue returned to pre-Covid levels and new projects in games and platform have not delivered revenues commensurate with those investments. This change will bring expenses and revenue back into line while preserving our core assets and long term upside.
Why did this happen?
There are both internal and external factors. 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. In the years since Pokémon GO’s launch, 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 mobile 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 in light of the macro environment.
We also bear responsibility for our own performance. Today’s highly competitive mobile gaming market requires dazzling quality and innovation. It also requires strong monetization and a social core which can drive viral growth and long term engagement. Teams need platform tools that are force multipliers, enabling them to build at the highest quality with powerful engagement features quickly and efficiently. Our AR map and platform must deliver the features that developers want in a robust and reliable way. We have not met our goals in all of these areas.”
What do you think about this? Tell us in the comments below.
