After rumors began circulating last month, it has now become official: Scopely will acquire the entirety of Niantic’s gaming division for a historic $3.5 billion. Scopely will now control some of the most popular mobile games around, including Pokémon GO, Monster Hunter Now, and companion apps such as Campfire and Wayfarer. In a joint statement released to the press, studio leaders Kei Kawai and Ed Wu from Niantic talked up the deal as being the right move for them and their teams.
Wu, senior vice president of Pokémon GO, said, “It’s been an incredible joy to serve hundreds of millions of Trainers in our real-world community for the past 10 years, and I truly believe the best is yet to come. Our mission remains clear: to inspire people to discover Pokémon in the real world together. With Scopely’s full commitment, experience, and resources, we’re going to make Pokémon GO the very best it can be.”
Niantic, itself, will have its remaining studios transition into what it is calling Niantic Spatial. Spatial is a new geospatial AI company that will be run by Niantic founder and current CEO John Hanke. This company will maintain Niantic’s previous mega-hit apps Ingress Prime and Peridot. “Niantic games have always been a bridge to connect people and inspire exploration, and I am confident they will continue to do both as part of Scopely,” Hanke said.
What this means for the future of Pokémon GO remains unknown. Scopely likely won’t change what was already successful, though, with connections to Saudi Arabia’s PIF, customers might start to shy away from in-game payments. At any rate, the old phrase, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss,” comes to mind.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
