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Pokémon Go studio cancels four titles, including its Transformers game

By Cristina Alexander June 29, 2022

Niantic, the hitmaker behind Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom, is buckling up for some hard times. The company announced it has canceled the production of four games and laid off 8% of its staff.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Niantic CEO John Hanke wrote a companywide email saying that around 85 to 90 employees were getting laid off. Hanke explained that the company has been “facing a time of economic turmoil” and has resorted to “reducing costs in a variety of areas.” That meant canceling four games, including Transformers game, Heavy Metal, and Hamlet.

Niantic announced Heavy Metal last year as a collaborative AR project with Hasbro and Tomy. Hamlet was announced in 2020 and was being produced in collaboration with Punchdrunk, the New York-based theatrical company behind the interactive play Sleep No More. The last two projects that got canned were codenamed Snowball and Blue Sky.

News of Niantic canceling projects and issuing layoffs came as a shock to fans, considering how Pokémon Go has been the most lucrative and popular for the second half of the company’s 12-year history. According to mobile analytics group Sensor Tower, Pokemon Go raked in an electrifying $6 billion in global lifetime revenue — that’s $1 billion a year. Its latest estimate shows that the game brought in $198 million during Q1 2022.

Meanwhile, Pikmin Bloom launched last year, and it only managed to make $5 million in revenue, making only $2 million in Q1 2022. The game didn’t gain as much traction as Pokémon Go did. Neither did Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which was forced to shut down in January because of a low user base, despite it making $12 million when it launched in June 2019.

The layoffs and game cancellations come just one day after Niantic announced its partnership with the NBA to develop NBA All-World, the organization’s first official immersive AR game that encourages players to find other basketball fans to play against and recruit on their teams. That game is set to launch during the 2022-23 NBA season.

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Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…

Gaming

NBA All-World aims to replicate Pokémon Go’s success starting today

A player walks around their neighborhood's map in NBA All-World.

Niantic launched NBA All-World, its basketball-themed, location-based mobile game, on iOS and Android today. Ahead of this release, Digital Trends attended a presentation to learn more about how the sports AR title works.
If you've played any of Niantic's games before, many elements of NBA All-World will feel quite familiar. The mobile game tracks players' location and encourages them to explore. While doing so, players will find Drop Zones that grant them new gear. Niantic says Drop Zones will often be placed near real-world counterparts, so players can find money near a bank or shoes near a shoe store.
There will also be Player Encounters, where they can face off against current NBA athletes. Niantic tells Digital Trends that classic athletes aren't currently in the game, but feels that idea "is a good one."

In Player Encounters, users face off against athletes in one of four minigames: 3-Point Shootout, Beat the Clock, Around the World, and First-to-Five. While they feature some impressive and realistic animation for a mobile game, Niantic says these minigames only use simple swipe controls because the studio wanted to make something that is easy to play while someone is walking around their neighborhood. If a user wins a Player Encounter, they can recruit that athlete to their team, customize them with items found at Drop Zones, and upgrade them by playing with them. Players can also challenge players they already recruited again to earn more currency.
The title also includes "Rule the Court" neighborhood leaderboards, many of which are placed at real-world basketball courts, where players can compete for the highest score. Currently, there are no player-versus-player elements in NBA All-World, although Niantic understands players like competitive modes in their sports games and may add them in the future. In fact, many features are still in the pipeline for post-launch updates, including Niantic's trademark AR support. Early in the second quarter of 2023, Niantic plans on adding AR support to NBA All-World to enhance the loot drops from Drop Zones to make it look like they're happening in the real world.
One thing that will be in the game at launch is microtransactions, which Niantic says will be similar to the ones available in its other games and allow players to increase their athletes' stats with Offense, Defense, and Fitness boosts.
Despite the undeniable success of Pokémon Go, Niantic has never been able to completely replicate its success with games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite or Pikmin Bloom. However, the studio seems confident that basketball has the global mass appeal to make NBA All-World another massive hit for the company. The early footage we saw of the game does leave us optimistic for NBA All-World's prospects, but we'll ultimately have to wait and see if the game will make it past its rookie season.
NBA All-World is available now for iOS and Android.

Gaming

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: How to beat the Elite Four

Poppy holding a pokeball.

The Victory Path story in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet ends in the classic battle to prove you are, in fact, the best of the best. To do this, you will need to beat the infamous Elite Four, just like you have in every prior-generation game. As always, this is a continuous gauntlet of battles against arguably the toughest trainers in the entire Paldea region. If that wasn't difficult enough, there are two more fights after those against the four. You will need a top team at your side and plenty of items. These tips to become the undisputed champion in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will also prove crucial.

Once you've collected all eight Gym Badges, reached the Pokémon League, and correctly answered all the questions in the assessment test, you can begin your path to becoming champion. Thankfully you will have the opportunity to heal and reorganize your team between battles, which will be necessary to counter some of these tough trainers.

Gaming

Pokémon Violet and Scarlet are the series’ best bird-watching games

A Pokemon trainer takes a selfie with an Ostrich Pokemon on Pokemon Scarlet.

Pokémon Violet and Scarlet are currently the talk of the gaming world, though that conversation is mostly about the bizarre slew of technical issues. While those are understandably the focus, they shouldn't totally paper over one of the best aspects of the games: They've got a lot of good birds.

Yes, Pokémon's ninth generation feels as though it's been specifically built with bird-watchers in mind. While previous games in the series tend to have one all-star flying evolution line and a smattering of winged friends hanging out in the world, Paldea might be Pokémon's most avian friendly region yet.