Mobile gaming developer Scopely has announced that it has agreed to acquire the gaming division of Niantic (maker of the popular Pokémon Go). Scopely is said to be buying the studio for $3.5 billion. Niantic said it will add an additional $350 million in cash (total value $3.85 billion) to Niantic stockholders.
Some of Niantic's most popular games and tools are:
- Pokémon Go, which has more than 20 million active players per week.
- Pikmin Bloom, a walking game released in 2021
- Monster Hunter Now, an AR game released in 2023
- Campfire , a community interaction platform
- Wayfarer, a tool for contributing new locations to maps in Niantic's games
All employees working in Niantic's gaming division will join Scopelyafter the acquisition.
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“Niantic games have always been a bridge for connecting people and inspiring exploration, and I’m confident they will continue to do both at Scopely. Scopely shares our vision for building and operating incredible live services, has a strong track record of working with the world’s largest and most beloved companies, and cares deeply about player communities and game development,” said Niantic CEO and President John Hanke.
Niantic said it will now focus on building real-world 3D maps through a new standalone entity called Niantic Spatial.
Scopely said that Niantic's games, apps and events will retain the "spirit" of the company (Niantic).
Niantic said it will continue to operate Ingress Prime, the revamped version of Niantic's first Ingress game, and Peridot on Spatial.
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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 its place 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 halted four projects, including Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. In 2023, it laid off another 230 employees and canceled its NBA and Marvel-related games.
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 model that would use machine learning to “understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes worldwide.”
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By selling its gaming division, Niantic has 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 primarily on game development. It may, again, be focusing its attention on something completely new.
Source: techcrunch.com
