Niantic Spatial closes New Zealand office amid enterprise shift

• Niantic Spatial was formed after Niantic sold its games business to Scopely.
• The company raised $250m to develop an AI-powered geospatial model.

Niantic Spatial is shutting down its office in Aotearoa, New Zealand as the company shifts its focus away from games and entertainment.

Creative director James Everett confirmed the closure in a LinkedIn post spotted by GameDeveloper, with that closure resulting in an undisclosed number of layoffs.

Though the exact number of employees affected has not been disclosed, Everett indicated that at least 10 employees have been laid off as part of the move.

Business pivot

The decision follows the company's strategic pivot towards enterprise markets. Niantic Spatial was created after Niantic Inc sold its licensed video game business to Savvy-owned mobile publisher Scopely for $3.5 billion in 2025. That included the sale of Pokémon Go, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday.

Niantic's spinout secured $250 million in funding last year to develop a large AI-powered geospatial model designed to support applications ranging from autonomous systems to AR glasses.

Although Niantic Spatial was established following Niantic's exit from the video games business, it continues to operate the augmented reality title Ingress. The company also retained ownership of the mobile game Peridot, but discontinued the virtual pet app earlier this year.