the company behind the 2016 blockbuster Pokémon Go, to sell its video game business to Saudi owned Scopely Inc.
As per some sources, discussions are underway for Niantic Inc., the company behind the 2016 blockbuster Pokémon Go, to sell its video game business to Saudi owned Scopely Inc. The deal is said to be closed in the next few weeks for around 3.5 billion USD. According to some sources who chose to remain unnamed, the deal would be for certain agreements like the Pokemon title along with other mobile games, but not everything would be included.
There is a possibility that an agreement will be made, however there is no assurance. They had to cut employees and cancel certain projects that were being worked on in 2022 and 2023 due to their failure in replicating their Pokémon Go success. Their Harry Potter spinoff game was also shut down in 2022. Representatives for both companies decided not to respond. Scopely is owned by Savvy Games Group which is a branch of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
John Hanke, The Chief Executive Officer and founder of the company, was in charge of the Geo product department at Google after working in satellite mapping. Pokemon Go turned fans of popular Nintendo Co. characters into avid walkers, encouraging them to use an interactive map to explore their surroundings.
According to the company’s statement, it is the most augmented reality game ever downloaded and has made the most profits as well. The San Francisco firm has added other products that include capturing and sharing tools for 3D scans of the real world. In November, the company revealed that its application’s data had contributed to the creation of a ‘large geospatial model’. That model will apply ‘large scale’ machine learning to ICT and automatically georeference places.
Mobile game developer Scopely was obtained by Savvy Games for $4.9 billion two years ago. In 2024, Savvy’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Ward stated that the company planned to expand their roster and put a mobile game with genre leading status through Scopely, their “tip of the spear” investment into the market. Lastly, in August, Niantic expanded its partnership with Savvy to grow its presences in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Savvy is using their investment to promote the public fund’s goal to make the Saudi Arabian economy less dependent on oil.
