Summary
- Niantic Spatial is laying off employees following its sale to Scopely.
- At least 68 Niantic Spatial employees will be let go effective May 20, aimed at making the company more focused.
- Pokemon GO will not be impacted by Niantic Spatial's layoffs.
Niantic Spatial is laying off employees shortly after its highly publicized sale to Scopely. The Pokemon GO publisher announced that it would be selling its video game business to the Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely for about $3.5 billion in March, with the deal itself being part of Saudi Arabia’s growing interest in the gaming industry. This buyout would affect the development teams of other Niantic games, but Pokemon GO was the one fans were most focused on due to its overall popularity.
When the buyout was announced, Pokemon GO lead Ed Wu assured worried gamers that Scopely wishes to prioritize making the best possible gaming experience, and that it would be a net positive for Niantic in the long run. For example, Pokemon GO senior product director Michael Steranka stated that Scopley will not sell user data or insert intrusive advertisements. However, Niantic did note that there would be layoffs as part of the resulting restructuring, as tends to be the case whenever one video game-related company purchases a smaller one.
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The exact number of Niantic employees being let go has now been revealed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification that was published in California (via Game Developer). According to this report, Niantic Spatial will be laying off at least 68 workers effective May 20. These cuts were announced on March 20 in an internal email from Niantic CEO John Hanke, not too long after the sale to Scopely was first made public.
Niantic Spatial To Lay Off 68 Employees In May
During the earlier announcement of these layoffs, Hanke stated that these cuts would make the newly-formed Niantic Spatial Inc. More focused by effectively operating as a "startup organization," and that a lot of consideration was put into which roles to let go. He also said that these decisions were not made lightly and do not reflect the quality of work from the soon-to-be laid-off Niantic employees. Niantic has confirmed that Hanke’s notes are connected to the new WARN report, but it has no further comment at this time.
This isn’t the first time that a company behind Pokemon GO has been hit with layoffs, as the Seattle-based Pokemon GO support studio Very Very Spaceship cut numerous employees last May. This included producers, recruiters and HR staff, and artists for in-game model assets, some of whom were a part of the company for about three to five years before the layoff announcement. According to a statement from Scopely, Pokemon GO will not be impacted by Niantic Spatial's layoffs.
