About a month ago, Niantic announced it was selling its gaming division. Now we know who’s getting what — Pokémon GO and Monster Hunter Now are being picked up by Scopely, a mobile game company backed by Saudi Arabia. But what does this mean for Niantic itself?

Well, not great news for some of its staff. At least 68 employees will be laid off on May 20, and they’ve already been notified. According to Niantic’s leadership, this was a tough decision, but necessary given the company’s shift in focus and current business challenges.

Instead of making games, Niantic is now turning its attention to geospatial AI. They've even launched a new company for it called Niantic Spatial Inc. The idea is to run more like a focused startup, and the layoffs are part of that transition.

Meanwhile, Scopely, which already owns a bunch of popular mobile game franchises, just dropped a surprise announcement — they’re teaming up with CD Projekt (yep, the studio behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077) to create a new game. What kind of game? No clue yet. We’ll have to wait and see.

Main image: alphacoders.com

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