Niantic undergoes layoffs, cancels four games
I will admit to only playing Pokémon Go, and nothing else in their portfolio. And I finally gave up on Go about 6 months ago, after playing since 2016.<p><i>(Maybe they made some amazing updates since then, and my points here are totally invalid…)</i><p>But what an <i>extremely</i> mismanaged product. <i>Extremely</i> buggy, <i>extremely</i> slow development, and <i>extremely</i> over-hyped AR features. Niantic was very slow in fixing any issues with the core game loop, and they basically never fixed issues with the later features, namely Battle League. I don’t even know where to start with the issues…opaque errors, location problems, low frame-rates, awful connectivity for Bluetooth accessories, buggy “Adventure Sync”, poor communications with users about issues or UI problems…<p>I played forever because of my perpetual love for Pokémon, and because it helped me connect with neighbors. Not that Niantic helped in any way at all there—community building was totally ad-hoc, via Facebook groups, or Facebook group chats, or Discord, or WhatsApp. But the entire time, I knew I was playing in a rickety house that was going to fall down at any moment. And it’s just not a surprise that house is starting to fall down.<p><i>(I just sort of drifted away, when my new dog demanded much more attention than my old fella. Turns out a year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever has a lot of energy, versus a 9-year-old Lab…)</i>