Pokemon Go and Monster Hunter Now developer Niantic is laying off at least 68 employees, weeks after being bought for $3.5 billion by Scopely.
We’re just over a year away from Pokemon Go’s 10th anniversary, and since launch the game has been a massive success, with developer Niantic going on to make games for the likes of Pikmin, Monster Hunter, the NBA, and a terrible series of books. Most of these games have also gone on to become successes in their own right (although obviously not to the level of Pokemon). Eventually culminating in Niantic being sold for $3.5 billion by Scopely (which is part of Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group).
But despite the substantial amount of money the company was sold for, Niantic has confirmed that it is laying off at least 68 employees. The company’s CEO, John Hanke, confirmed back in March that the company would be laying off staff.
In the message back in March, Hanke said, “As we embark on our new journey as Niantic Spatial, we will need to operate as a startup organization, focused on the road ahead. We carefully evaluated the structure we believe is needed for the new company, and after a lot of consideration, it became clear that some roles would not be required given our new focus.”
A WARN report published in California this week confirmed the scale of the layoffs, with at least 68 people impacted, with them losing their jobs on May 20, 2025.
Game Developer reached out to Niantic for comment, with the company confirming that these are the layoffs Hanke was referring to but that it doesn’t have “anything else to add to that statement at this time.”
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