{"id":917891,"date":"2026-07-06T15:12:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/ingress-developer-niantic-spatial-shuttering-new-zealand-office\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:12:40","slug":"ingress-developer-niantic-spatial-shuttering-new-zealand-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/ingress-developer-niantic-spatial-shuttering-new-zealand-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Ingress developer Niantic Spatial shuttering New Zealand office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Entertainment <\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"article-base-contributors\">\n<div data-component=\"contributors\"><a data-testid=\"contributor-name\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/author\/chris-kerr\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\">Chris Kerr,<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-testid=\"contributor-title\">Senior Editor, News,<\/span><span data-testid=\"contributor-title\">GameDeveloper.com<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"contributors-date\">July 6, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Clock\"><\/span><span data-testid=\"article-read-time-text\">1 Min Read<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"captioned-content\" data-testid=\"featured-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-component=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt740a130ae3c5d529\/blteb05b27f2c9e359b\/6a4baee4573ebe1039d157b1\/Ingress_Header.png?width=1280&#038;auto=webp&#038;quality=80&#038;format=jpg&#038;disable=upscale\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Entertainment Key artwork for Ingress\" title=\"Entertainment Key artwork for Ingress\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Image via Niantic Spatial<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-module=\"content\" data-testid=\"article-base-body-content\">\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Niantic Spatial is winding down its office in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and laying off an undisclosed number of employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">James Everett, creative director at Niantic Spatial, <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7477923689821347840\/\">confirmed the news in a post on LinkedIn<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> and said the closure is the result of a pivot towards enterprise markets over video games and entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Niantic Spatial was spun out of Niantic Inc after the <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Pokemon Go<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> maker <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/niantic-is-laying-off-68-employees-after-selling-its-game-business-for-3-5-billion\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\">sold its video game business<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> to Saudi-owned mobile publisher Scopely for $3.5 billion in 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">The offshoot <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticspatial.com\/blog\/niantic-spatial-day-one\">secured $250 million in funding last year<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"> with the remit of developing a large AI-powered geospatial model capable of powering everything from autonomous systems to AR glasses<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Despite being formed after Niantic made an exit from the video game industry, Niantic Spatial continues to operate AR title <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Ingress<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">. The spinoff also retained ownership of mobile game, <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><span>Peridot<\/span><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">, but <\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\"><a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/playperidot.com\/en\/news\/peridot-mobile-sunset\">chose to discontinue the virtual pet app in April 2026<\/a><\/span><span data-testid=\"content-text\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\"><span data-testid=\"related-article-title\">Related:<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/nintendo-is-winding-down-switch-1-sales-in-europe\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\">Nintendo is winding down original Switch sales in Europe<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">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<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Niantic Spatial declined to comment when approached by Game Developer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>Entertainment About the Author<\/h2>\n<div data-component=\"contributor-summary\">\n<p><a data-testid=\"contributor-summary-img-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/author\/chris-kerr\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-component=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt740a130ae3c5d529\/blt1c7a117d71555292\/68df91e67f2d057e47bc3d18\/Me.jpeg?width=400&#038;auto=webp&#038;quality=80&#038;disable=upscale\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Entertainment Chris Kerr\" title=\"Entertainment Chris Kerr\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"contributor-summary-subtitle\">Senior Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span data-testid=\"content-text\">Game Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, and\u00a0PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/ingress-developer-niantic-spatial-shuttering-new-zealand-office\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Chris Kerr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Kerr, Senior Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com July 6, 2026 1 Min Read Image via Niantic Spatial Niantic Spatial is winding down its office in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and laying off an undisclosed number of employees. James Everett, creative director at Niantic Spatial, confirmed the news in a post on LinkedIn and said the closure is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":917892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23363,1798,150833],"tags":[6949,49398],"class_list":["post-917891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-developer","category-entertainment","category-ingress","tag-developer","tag-ingress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}