According to what we have seen, COVID-19 has taken a toll on video game companies. It has been quite difficult for them to build teams and explore outdoors. Although being outdoors got banned, Niantic took this as a challenge.
They ordered their employees to work from home and while doing that, they could think of how Pokemon GO could become a game that can be played indoors.
Venture Beat did an interview with the Niantic General Manager Greg Borrud and he gave us a glimpse of how developers for Niantic, that are located in San Francisco, are dealing with the new work environment and how quick adjustment must be done for all of his games.
“It was tough, I’ll be honest. The first priority was to make sure that our employees could continue to work safely while dealing with this delicate situation. The teams were fantastic, both development and cross-functional. After that, we had to think about the products. When you own these real-world titles, you have to be very agile. The first thing we did was to quickly introduce changes to allow home gaming. This means fixing the appearance rates, the type of little monsters that appear on the map, and the type of activity. In a few days, we were able to release these updates.”
Thanks to the quick response, the interest rate in the game is stable. We hope that soon we will be able to get back to normal and catch Pokemon and take part in the raids.
