Pokemon GO and Other Niantic Mobile Games Sold to Scopely

Pokemon GO and other mobile games from Niantic have been sold to Scopely. The deal is reported to be worth $3.5 billion. The company confirmed this via official sites for titles.

This sale means that all Niantic games will now be managed by Scopely, the mobile developer responsible for Monopoly Go, Star Trek: Fleet Command and Marvel Strike Force. While Pokemon GO is the most prominent game sold as part of the deal, Scopely will also be overseeing other former Niantic games. This includes Nintendo’s Pikmin Bloom and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Now. At present, the existing teams handling these games will remain in place, with no changes to personnel. This includes the Pokemon GO team leader, Ed Wu, who wrote about the sale in a blog post on the game’s official website.

The sale attracted some criticism due to Scopely’s connection with the Saudi Arabian government. While the company is based in the US, it is a subsidiary of Savvy Games Group, an investment firm created by the Saudi Arabian public wealth fund. Meanwhile, Niantic have sold off their games division in order to focus on technology development, particularly AI.

Despite the game being sold to Scopely, Pokemon Go should see no immediate changes. Updates and events will continue as normal, such as the recent event that brought Black Kyurem and White Kyurem to the game.

Pokemon Go is out now for mobile devices.