>>57423932Not really. The Saudi fund has been dumping tons of money into video games and other cultural export stuff since they know the oil is drying up and they want to stay globally relevant. They're one of the biggest shareholders for multiple developers, Nintendo included. There wasn't any falling out between Nintendo and Niantic. LGPE was just Masuda jerking himself off one last time while also riding Go hype at peak popularity. SwSh suffered because of it.
The truth is always more simple. The game's income has fallen hard since the covid peak. All of Niantic's other games have been big financial flops, and they're getting pressured by shareholders to "do ai" because it's the free money buzzword in the US. Their 10-year contract with Nintendo ends next year, and consumer spending is slowing. They're hoping to sell it off and repackage their datamining as some vague AI bullshit to make number go up.
