Niantic Spatial Lays Off 68 Employees Following Sale of Games Business to Scopely

Last month, Niantic made headlines when it sold its entire games portfolio—including Pokémon GO, Monopoly GO!, and several other titles—to Scopely in a deal valued at over $3.5 billion. The move marked the end of Niantic’s direct involvement in the consumer gaming space, a realm that had defined its public identity since spinning out of Google in 2015.

The remaining entity, Niantic Spatial, is now operating as a separate venture, backed by $250 million in funding. This includes $200 million drawn from Niantic's original balance sheet and an additional $50 million investment from Scopely. With its pivot away from games, Niantic Spatial is now zeroing in on geospatial artificial intelligence—a field that involves mapping and understanding the physical world through machine learning and real-time data.

Downsizing for a Startup Mentality
The layoffs, as detailed by CEO John Hanke in an internal message to employees, are part of a broader restructuring effort to “operate as a startup organization.” Hanke emphasized that the roles being eliminated were not a reflection of employee performance but rather the result of Niantic Spatial’s refined mission and priorities.

“Some roles would not be required given our new focus,” Hanke wrote, adding that the company is committed to supporting those affected during their transition to new opportunities.

While difficult, the decision reflects a common reality in the tech world: when companies pivot, especially at such a fundamental level, organizational reshaping is often inevitable.

A New Focus: Geospatial AI and Emerging Technologies
Niantic’s new path forward centers on geospatial AI—technology that merges the physical and digital worlds by enabling devices to understand their spatial environment. This shift is not entirely new; even during its game-focused years, Niantic was quietly developing AR infrastructure and geospatial capabilities behind the scenes, using its games as both testbeds and showcases.

With the gaming side now external to the organization, Niantic Spatial can focus exclusively on B2B and infrastructure-level technologies that support the broader ecosystem of AR and location-based services. This could include everything from navigation tools for autonomous systems to spatial computing platforms for enterprise applications.

The company's stated goal is to “accelerate and scale even more rapidly,” leveraging the expertise and assets retained from years of developing location-based gaming.

What Comes Next for Niantic Spatial?
While the layoffs are undoubtedly a painful part of this transition, the future for Niantic Spatial could be promising if it capitalizes on its strengths. The firm retains significant intellectual property, technical capabilities, and access to one of the most robust geospatial datasets in the world—developed during its years of operating massive, globally-distributed AR games.

What remains to be seen is how the market will respond to this pivot. As spatial computing and AR continue to mature, Niantic Spatial could become a key infrastructure player, much like how Unity serves the 3D development community or how OpenAI powers natural language interfaces.

Final Thoughts
Niantic’s transformation from a gaming innovator to a geospatial AI-focused company reflects broader trends in tech—where firms are increasingly betting on the convergence of AI, AR, and real-world data. The layoffs, while unfortunate, mark a clear step toward redefining the company’s identity and purpose.

For now, Niantic Spatial must navigate the challenges of reinvention while building momentum in a highly competitive and still-emerging sector. If successful, it could once again find itself at the forefront of technological innovation—just not in the form most people originally knew it.