Pokémon Go Dev Moves to Reassure Players After $3.5 Billion Sale to Monopoly Go! Company Is Confirmed

Niantic Inc. has confirmed the merchantability of Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, and their improvement teams to the Saudi-owned shaper of Monopoly Go! for $3.5 billion.

An further $350 cardinal of currency from Niantic is being distributed arsenic portion of the deal, yielding a full worth of astir $3.85 cardinal for Niantic equity holders.

In a enactment to press, Scopely, which is owned by Saudi concern institution Savvy Games, said the Niantic games concern has implicit 30 cardinal monthly progressive players (MAUs), implicit 20 cardinal play progressive players, and saw much than $1 cardinal successful gross successful 2024. Pokémon Go is the jewel successful the crown, ranking arsenic a apical 10 mobile crippled each twelvemonth since its motorboat astir a decennary ago, with implicit 100 cardinal unsocial players successful 2024.

Niantic said its crippled squad has “exciting semipermanent roadmaps that they volition proceed to physique upon arsenic portion of Scopely.”

“This concern ensures that our games person the agelong word enactment needed to beryllium ‘forever games’ that volition endure for aboriginal generations,” Niantic said successful a blog post.

“Players tin expect that the games, apps, services, and events they cognize and emotion volition proceed to person Scopely’s ongoing investment, driven by the aforesaid teams that person ever created these experiences.”

Scopely has bought Niantic's full games concern for $3.5 billion. Image credit: Scopely.

In a abstracted blog post, Pokémon Go main Ed Wu moved to reassure players who had already expressed interest astir the destiny of the crippled if a merchantability were to spell through.

“As it’s ever important to me, and our full crippled team, that our assemblage understands and is excited by the semipermanent imaginativeness for this game, I privation to stock wherefore I judge a concern with Scopely volition beryllium a affirmative measurement for each of you and the game’s future,” Wu, who was the archetypal technologist connected the Pokémon GO codebase and was determination for its monolithic 2016 launch, said.

“Scopely expressed a heavy admiration for this assemblage and our team. I person each content Pokémon GO volition further flourish arsenic portion of Scopely, not lone into its 2nd decade, but for galore much years to come, nether the ngo of discovering Pokémon successful the existent satellite and inspiring radical to research together,” Wu continued.

“Our caller partnership, on with our decennary agelong concern with The Pokémon Company, means we tin support this semipermanent focus. Scopely afloat believes successful our ngo and ongoing extremity to make the champion Pokémon Go acquisition possible. Their absorption volition beryllium to enactment our team, providing resources to proceed delivering the gameplay you each cognize and love.

“The full Pokémon Go squad is staying unneurotic done this partnership. The aforesaid radical who person been guiding and gathering the crippled for years volition proceed doing what we love. We’re ever continually adding to the crippled - Raid Battles, friends, Go Battle League, Routes, Dynamax/Gigantamax, and, of course, Pokémon Go Fest and our unrecorded events - which I look guardant to continuing to bash for galore years to come. Scopely empowers their crippled teams arsenic autonomous groups to spell aft the roadmaps that they’re inspired to pursue, and what each squad believes is champion for the subordinate experience. This attack is highly appealing to america astatine Niantic games. I person spoken to a fig of crippled leaders astatine Scopely who person fixed maine large assurance successful however the institution enables each crippled to independently make and creatively thrive.

“We volition beryllium joining a broader enactment dedicated to games. I judge that Pokémon Go tin proceed to thrive with Scopely’s exclusive and semipermanent absorption connected game-making. Scopely’s presumption arsenic a backstage institution besides means we tin prioritize what’s champion for you, our Trainers, for the agelong term. We judge that prioritizing short-term gains astatine the disbursal of our semipermanent ngo would beryllium counterproductive and self-defeating. Every enactment I’ve had with Scopely leaders has reinforced that we are successful full statement that the scale, longevity and astir of all, existent satellite community, of Pokémon Go marque it genuinely special. We are agreed successful protecting that.

“With Scopely’s afloat commitment, acquisition and resources, we’re going to marque Pokémon Go the precise champion it tin beryllium – with unthinkable battles for thousands of Trainers astatine a clip astatine our unrecorded events and caller ways to link to your friends and community, each portion remaining focused connected the excitement and acquisition of discovering Pokémon successful the existent world. We person invested to empower thousands of Community Leaders and Ambassadors who pb millions of Trainers to play unneurotic successful the existent world, and Scopely is successful afloat statement that this highly-admired programme volition beryllium a precedence to put successful together. The real-world assemblage that loves Pokémon Go volition stay our guiding airy successful each we do.

“Our partners astatine The Pokémon Company person ever been cardinal to however we physique this crippled together, starting with the physics of the archetypal Poké Ball propulsion that we hand-tuned together. I americium incredibly grateful for their regular wisdom, guidance, and cautious stewardship of our shared imaginativeness for discovering Pokémon successful the existent world, and I’m precise excited that our concern with The Pokémon Company volition proceed arsenic it has for the past decade.

“I won’t accidental that Pokémon Go volition stay the same, due to the fact that it has ever been a enactment successful progress. But however we make and germinate it volition stay unchanged, and I anticipation that we tin marque the acquisition adjacent amended for each of you.

“I person truthful overmuch gratitude for the unthinkable joyousness of serving hundreds of millions of Trainers successful our real-world assemblage for the past 9 years, and I genuinely judge the champion is yet to come.”

Elsewhere, Niantic said it’s spinning disconnected its arguable geospatial AI concern into a caller company, Niantic Spatial Inc., “enabling it to accelerate and standard adjacent much rapidly.” Scopely is simply a $50 cardinal capitalist successful this caller venture, which besides has $200 cardinal from Niantic itself.

Niantic Spatial volition proceed to ain and run its different real-world AR games, Ingress Prime and Peridot.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine wesley_yinpoole@ign.com oregon confidentially astatine wyp100@proton.me.