[aiilns]

It's because Pokémon Go was a product designed for manipulating people. One of the first attempts at mass behavioral modification.

Most Google products make sense when you think in data extraction terms & behavioral modification. Its products must either gather data from the users, use that data for better manipulating (personalized ads, "ads" for bars in the case of Go etc) or facilitate those two functions.

That's Google's business, not game development. And from that point of view, Pokémon Go was a huge success.

[cykros]

One need only look to the lore of Ingress to see the real aims here. Niantic, or, the NIA, has always had intel and manipulation in mind (you could almost say they aspire to be "shapers").