Pokemon GO developer Niantic has confirmed this afternoon that it has been acquired by Scopely for $3.5 billion. If you are not aware, Scopely is part of Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group. Writing on the official Pokemon GO website, Ed Wu the project lead for the popular Pokemon GO, said that the move will be “a positive step for all of you and the game’s future.” He outlined the following reasons:
- Scopely expressed a deep admiration for this community and our team. I have every belief Pokémon GO will further flourish as part of Scopely, not only into its second decade, but for many more years to come, under the mission of discovering Pokémon in the real world and inspiring people to explore together. Our new partnership, along with our decade long partnership with The Pokémon Company, means we can maintain this long-term focus. Scopely fully believes in our mission and ongoing goal to create the best Pokémon GO experience possible. Their focus will be to support our team, providing resources to continue delivering the gameplay you all know and love. Read more on their blog here.
- The entire Pokémon GO team is staying together through this partnership. The same people who have been guiding and building the game for years will continue doing what we love. We’re always continually adding to the game – Raid Battles, friends, GO Battle League, Routes, Dynamax/Gigantamax, and, of course, Pokémon GO Fest and our live events – which I look forward to continuing to do for many years to come. Scopely empowers their game teams as autonomous groups to go after the roadmaps that they’re inspired to pursue, and what each team believes is best for the player experience. This approach is extremely appealing to us at Niantic games. I have spoken to a number of game leaders at Scopely who have given me great confidence in how the company enables each game to independently develop and creatively thrive.
- We will be joining a broader organization dedicated to games. I believe that Pokémon GO can continue to thrive with Scopely’s exclusive and long-term focus on game-making. Scopely’s status as a private company also means we can prioritize what’s best for you, our Trainers, for the long term. We believe that prioritizing short-term gains at the expense of our long-term mission would be counterproductive and self-defeating. Every interaction I’ve had with Scopely leaders has reinforced that we are in total agreement that the scale, longevity and most of all, real world community, of Pokémon GO make it truly special. We are united in protecting that.
This quote makes me worried, not gonna lie “Scopely’s status as a private company also means we can prioritize what’s best for you, our Trainers, for the long term.”
At worst, Nintendo will be able to cancel any participation of pokemon with niantic… I don’t worry too much about that
On the other hand, Nintendo keeps its shares in Niantic or not? And conversely, Niantic keeps Nintendo’s shares? In the latter case, it means that a Saudi company indirectly owns shares in Nintendo…
It’s not the first time they’ve gotten close to Nintendo, as a matter of fact, Saudi Arabia PIF is the largest outside shareholder of Nintendo. They probably now own close to 10% with this acquisition. Do keep in mind, even though Nintendo has stakes in Niantic, Niantic only sold Scopely, so who knows if Nintendo will even have a stake in Scopely. Since Niantic will still be around.
This is very worrisome though. Because they bought Niantics gaming division, not Niantic themselves. And without Niantics Mapping, they can’t really make more games, I mean they can, but they have to either license it, buy it, or creat one of their own. So this tells me it was just a move to get even closer to owning majority stake in Nintendo.
If that’s the case F*$# Niantic.
This is very unlikely because outside of the Yamauchi family, Nintendo is largely owned by Japanese state-owned companies so an outside majority stake is very unlikely especially since I doubt Nintendo or the Japanese government in general will let this happeN.
It’s not impossible, I used to think it was, but then Zenimax bought Tango a few years back. Renault basically own Nissan motors, so it’s not out of the realm for a foreign entity to own a Japanese one. Yes, Nintendo is currently own by mostly Japanese companies and shareholders, but all it takes is a few people with greed and someone with a lot of money to make it happen. Look at Niantic as example #1
This explains Pokemon’s move to focus on newer announced apps in cause Niantic’s partnership falls out.
Your headline is very misleading, the blog that you link to clearly says: Today we shared publicly that we signed an agreement to acquire the games business of Niantic, Inc, which includes its team, games, apps and services, including “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now.” It’s not Niantic that they are acquire is just its game business. That’s completely different.
Call me crazy, but this makes me wonder if TPC/Nintendo forced Niantic to sell for behind the scenes reason(s). Niantic is KEEPING Ingress & Peridot, and sold off their games division that oversaw NINTENDO games. Very interesting. Cite: Niantic’s Michael Steranka and Mark Van Lommel Discuss Pokémon GO’s Future Under Scopely.