Niantic: Pokémon Go Developer Sells Its Gaming Division 18 comments
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Pokémon Go developer Niantic has announced that its gaming division will be sold to Scopey for the equivalent of over €3.5 billion. Niantic wants to reorganize and shift its focus away from game development.
Pokémon as a Project Horse
The portfolio, which is now changing hands, is quite high-end. Above all, of course, is Pokémon Go, which was released for Android and iOS in 2016 and has made headlines several times. Although the game will be nine years old in June of this year, it is still very popular or has a very good player base. According to active player figures, Pokémon Go was played by over 118 million players in February. The daily peak even exceeded 32 million players in February. According to statistics, the number of players has been steadily increasing in recent months. Therefore, it can be assumed that Pokémon GO was the main price driver during the sale.
Niantic also has other flash games, even if they can’t keep up with Pokémon Go. These include:
Peridot, Monster Hunter Now, Pikmin Bloomingress Prime
Peridot is another augmented reality (AR) game reminiscent of a cross between Pokémon Go and the Tamagotchis known from the 90s. The other three products are also mobile games for Android or iOS and use augmented reality as a gameplay principle. Peridot and Prime remain with Niantic and are not being sold.
Scopely with its own heavyweight
Scopely itself is no stranger to size either. Scopely’s most successful product is Monopoly Go, which was released in 2023 and enjoyed tremendous financial success after its launch. Microtransactions generated two billion American dolls in less than a year. By mid-2024, there were already three billion; more recent figures are unavailable.
As can be seen in the press release for sale, Scopely promises that Niantic products “will remain true to their spirit,” so the new owner is not planning any fundamental changes. Given that Pokémon Go players have recently been dissatisfied with excessive monetization through microtransactions, Scopely likely has no business (anymore). A roadmap for the further development of Niantic titles does not currently exist.
It has also been confirmed that the entire Niantic workforce, which is affected by the sale of the gaming division, will be taken over by Scopely. There are no expected layoffs during the takeover. How many employees will be affected by the change is unknown. Niantic has a total of between 800 and 900 employees (information fluctuates) and Scopely has 2,300.
Niantic Realignment
Niantic, on the other hand, has already announced how it will proceed after the sale. The focus will continue to shift from game development. A new department called Niantic Spatial is to be built, specializing in 3D map creation. Niantic Spatial is headed by Niantic CEO and founder John Hanke.
This describes Niantic Spatial’s mission:
John Hanke sees current LLMs (Chatgpt and others) as a first step toward enabling machines to understand and solve complex problems. The next step will be for machines to need precise data from the physical world to interact with it. Examples include navigating an AI-controlled robot or driving a vehicle autonomously.
Niantic Spatial will receive a $300 million funding injection for this work.
Topics: Gaming, Niantic Economy, Source: TechCrunch
A lifelong video game enthusiast, Julien reviews the latest releases and explores the technologies transforming the gaming world.
