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Saudi Arabian Mobile Publisher Scopely to Acquire Pokémon Go Developer Niantic's Game Business
posted on by Alex Mateo
Pokémon Go mobile game developer Niantic Inc. announced on Wednesday that Scopely — a Saudi Arabia-owned mobile game developer and publisher — has reached a deal to acquire the Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now games. Scopely is buying the games and their respective teams for US$3.5 billion and an additional US$350 million in cash from Niantic for a total of about US$3.85 billion. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
Scopely will also acquire Niantic's app "Campfire," which connects local communities, and "Wayfarer," which allows players to map new locations.
The game teams from Niantic will remain together and operate under their long-time leaders Pokémon Go Senior Vice President Ed Wu and Chief Product Officer Kei Kawai. Niantic stated that this partnership will ensure that its games will have the "long term support needed to be 'forever games'."
Niantic was in talks to sell its video game business to Scopely in February.
Niantic also announced that it is spinning off its geospatial AI business into a new company, Niantic Spatial Inc. Niantic Spatial is developing a "Large Geospatial Model," allowing people and machines to understand and navigate the world. Niantic Spatial will continue to own and operate the Ingress Prime and Peridot AR games.
Niantic's Ingress AR app inspired an anime adaptation that premiered in October 2018. Netflix began streaming the anime worldwide in April 2019. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime and released it on Blu-ray Disc.
Scopely is known for mobile games such as Marvel Strike Force, Star Trek Fleet Command, Monopoly Go!, and Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem.
Savvy Games Group, a subsidiary of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF, which is chaired by the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman), acquired Scopely for US$4.9 billion in 2023. Savvy Games Group and Niantic already signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August, to help Niantic expand in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. PIF also has investments in Toei, Nintendo, and other Japanese companies. The separate Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, founded by Mohammed, owns the Saudi studio Manga Productions and 96.18% of the Japanese game developer SNK.
In February 2021, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who relocated to the United States and wrote for The Washington Post newspaper before being killed in 2018. The Saudi Arabian government "completely reject[ed]" the U.S. assessment. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been criticized for pursuing a war in Yemen that caused a humanitarian disaster and for cracking down on dissenting voices. He has alternately been praised for ending a ban on women drivers in 2018.
