{"id":512494,"date":"2026-07-06T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512494\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:23:08","slug":"ingress-developer-niantic-spatial-shuttering-new-zealand-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512494\/","title":{"rendered":"Ingress developer Niantic Spatial shuttering New Zealand office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Niantic Spatial is winding down its office in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and laying off an undisclosed number of employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">James Everett, creative director at Niantic Spatial, <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7477923689821347840\/\">confirmed the news in a post on LinkedIn<\/a> and said the closure is the result of a pivot towards enterprise markets over video games and entertainment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Niantic Spatial was spun out of Niantic Inc after the Pokemon Go maker <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/niantic-is-laying-off-68-employees-after-selling-its-game-business-for-3-5-billion\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sold its video game business<\/a> to Saudi-owned mobile publisher Scopely for $3.5 billion in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The offshoot <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticspatial.com\/blog\/niantic-spatial-day-one\">secured $250 million in funding last year<\/a> with the remit of developing a large AI-powered geospatial model capable of powering everything from autonomous systems to AR glasses<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Despite being formed after Niantic made an exit from the video game industry, Niantic Spatial continues to operate AR title Ingress. The spinoff also retained ownership of mobile game, Peridot, but <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/playperidot.com\/en\/news\/peridot-mobile-sunset\">chose to discontinue the virtual pet app in April 2026<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/enginefall-developer-red-rover-interactive-is-making-layoffs\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Enginefall developer Red Rover Interactive is making layoffs<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">It&#8217;s unclear how many people have been made redundant by Niantic Spatial, but Everett has indicated that at least 10 employees have been laid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Niantic Spatial declined to comment when approached by Game Developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niantic Spatial is winding down its office in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and laying off an undisclosed number of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-512494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}