Niantic companybehind Pokémon Go, wants to sell its gaming division , according to reports circulating in recent hours.
The company is reportedly exploring a deal with mobile game development company Scopely , which is owned by Saudi Arabia-based Savvy Games Group . Niantic's gaming division could be sold for around $3.5 million.
Neither of the two companies has officially confirmed the agreement.
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Niantic, best known for its popular Pokémon Go, has been able to successfully integrate augmented reality into its games, which has caught the attention of the gaming community. Its first title, Ingress, received rave reviews for its unique, geographical take on territory control. However, it was Pokémon Gothat cemented it in the gaming world. The game was released in 2016 and quickly became a global phenomenon. The company's subsequent titles were relatively successful, but not on the scale of Pokémon Go.
In recent years, Niantic has seemed to be dealing with some issues. In 2022, it laid off 8% of its staff and shut down four projects, including Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. In 2023, it laid off another 230 employees and canceled its NBA and Marvel-related games.
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But last year, the company updated its Scaniverse to allow users to create models of real-world objects and provide the data to developers. In November, the company said it wanted to build a large geospatial modelthat would use machine learning to “understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes worldwide.”
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Returning to the issue of selling the gaming division, it should be noted that Niantic has not confirmed anything. If the reports, which were started by Bloomberg, are true, then the company has probably decided to make a significant change, which may be related to a general change in priorities. Perhaps the American company sees greater potential and growth opportunities in the development of AR technology instead of relying mainly on game development. It may, again, be focusing its attention on something completely new.
Source: techcrunch.com
