The real-world metaverse is being built by Niantic. The company decided to let go of up to 90 people because of the economic downturn. The company raised $300 million in seven months and now has a $9 billion valuation.
John Hanke, the company's CEO, told staff in an email that the company needs to reduce costs in order to prepare for economic storms that may lie ahead. Heavy Metal, a Transformers game that was in the early stages of testing, was one of four upcoming projects that were canceled by Niantic. The recently announced games don't seem to be affected.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has not been as successful as Pokémon GO has been. According to estimates from Sensor Tower, the game has been downloaded over five million times and generated over six million dollars in in-game spending. The smash-hit Pokémon GO earned $500 million in its first two months, making it one of the fastest-growing mobile games ever. Not every game will be as monumental as Pokémon GO, but new games should make more money than just a small portion of the revenue from the app.
The Lightship augmented reality developer kit is being built by Niantic and is open to anyone who has a basic knowledge of the Unity game engine. Users will have to pay for access to the augmented reality development tools in January of 2020.
Before publication, Niantic didn't reply to request for comment.
The Niantic EC-1
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