Pok mon GO developer cancels four projects just two days after announcing a new game 

Two days ago, Niantic announced yet another augmented reality game, this time themed around the NBA. But it would seem Niantic has been struggling to reproduce the success of Pokémon GO, despite having slapped all manner of brands on similar games over the last few years, like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (already shuttered as a failure), Catan: World Explorers (also canceled), and Pikmin Bloom. One-trick-pony just about sums up the company, and even though it's put in a lot of effort to build out its AR tech as a platform (known as Lightship), it would seem the success of Pokémon GO isn't enough to carry the studio forward as its branded clones fail to find similar success. In comes Bloomberg with a recent report that the company is facing a time of economic turmoil, per a leaked internal staff email, and so the studio has canceled four upcoming games while laying off 8% of its staff.

Funnily enough, in our NBA All-World announcement, I mentioned that Niantic's upcoming game Transformers: Heavy Metal was still missing in action a year after its initial announcement. Well, Bloomberg has revealed this Transformers game is one of the four recently canceled titles by the studio. Along with Transformers: Heavy Metal, Hamlet (in cooperation with Punchdrunk), Blue Sky (unannounced), and Snowball (unannounced) are also on the cutting room floor. These four games join Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Catan: World Explorers, two other branded failures from the company.

Of course, I'm sure there's an argument to be made that the only reason Pokémon GO is popular is because it contains Pokémon, which is why Niantic's other games continue to struggle to find an audience. It's not Niantic's real-world AR gameplay that's keeping people playing Pokémon GO, it's the casino-like earning of new Pokémon that keeps the game afloat, hence the continued lack of interest in similar titles. Collecting Pokémon is a well-established pastime for generations of children and adults. Conversely, collecting digital tennis shoes in a NBA game just doesn't offer the same widespread appeal.

So it would seem Niantic has backed itself into a corner, as it's put a lot of effort into building out its AR platform Lightship, and yet few of its AR games are finding traction. It's an all-eggs-in-one-basket scenario, and Niantic's employees are now paying the price with the recent round of layoffs, culling 85 to 90 jobs from the company's ranks, equaling out to around 8% of its workforce.

While it would be in incredibly poor taste to celebrate anyone losing their job, this current economic downtrend for Niantic sure isn't surprising. You can only make the same game over and over again so many times before people are sick of it. Maybe one day Niantic will create something that isn't an AR game, but that day isn't today, as NBA All-World was recently announced, so it would seem the company is still full steam ahead with AR games despite today's unfortunate news.

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