Niantic Lays Off Several Employees After Selling Pokemon GO

Earlier this year, Niantic announced they would be selling off their entire games division, including Pokemon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and more.

Unfortunately, this sale has also come with a round of layoffs at the company. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report published in Canada, 68 employees at Niantic will be losing their jobs come May 20th 2025. These layoffs were briefly discussed by Niantic themselves in a March 20th 2025 blog post, where CEO John Hanke said that some roles would “no longer be required” due to their “new focus”.

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. This week, we are sharing this news with the individuals whose roles are impacted.

These decisions are never easy; they in no way reflect the individuals’ performance, and we understand their impact on people’s lives. We deeply appreciate the talented individuals who helped us get here and for their many contributions, and will support them as they transition to new opportunities.

Niantic’s sale of its games business netted them a staggering $3.5 billion dollars, but this evidently didn’t change the fact that their restructuring necessitated job cuts.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.