NIANTIC, the company behind the 2016 hit Pokemon Go, is in talks to sell its video game business to Saudi Arabia-controlled Scopely, according to several sources familiar with the discussions.
A deal could be announced in the coming weeks. The price being discussed is about US$3.5 billion, according to one of the sources. Any agreement would involve the Pokemon title as well as other mobile games, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. There’s no assurance an agreement will be reached.
The Pokemon Go game was a global phenomenon. But the company had trouble duplicating its runaway success and cut staff and cancelled some titles in development in 2022 and 2023. Its Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game shut down in 2022.
Representatives of Niantic and Scopely declined to comment. Scopely is owned by Savvy Games Group, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Niantic was spun out of Alphabet’s Google in 2015. Its chief executive officer and founder, John Hanke, worked in satellite mapping before leading Google’s Geo product division. Pokemon Go encouraged players to walk around their neighbourhood with an interactive map to find the popular Nintendo characters.
The game is the most downloaded and profitable augmented reality app of all time, according to the company.
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The San Francisco-based company makes other products, including tools to help capture and share 3D scans of real-world locations. Data generated through its apps have contributed to a “large geospatial model”, the company announced in November. That model will “use large-scale machine learning to understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes globally”.
Mobile game maker Scopely was acquired for US$4.9 billion two years ago by Savvy Games. In 2024, Savvy chief executive officer Brian Ward said that the company planned to add a “genre-leading” mobile title to its roster through Scopely – the “tip of the spear” for its mobile investment strategy.
In August, Niantic signed a deal with Savvy to help it expand in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Savvy is part of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s larger effort to diversify its economy by investing in the video game industry. BLOOMBERG
