'Pokémon Go' sells to Culver City-based Scopely in $3.5 billion deal

Scopely, a Culver City-based mobile crippled developer and publisher, volition get the games portfolio of developer Niantic, including “Pokémon Go,” “Pikmin Bloom” and “Monster Hunter Now,” successful a woody valued astatine $3.5 billion, the companies said Wednesday.

Niantic’s games generated $1 cardinal successful gross successful 2024, and “Pokémon Go” has remained a apical 10 mobile crippled since its motorboat successful 2016, according to Scopely.

Players — besides called trainers, who seizure and conflict monsters by walking astir successful the existent satellite with a integer overlay, called augmented world — person logged 30 cardinal miles successful the app. The game, a sensation erstwhile it debuted, counts 20 cardinal play progressive players.

Last month, implicit 253,000 radical successful Los Angeles and Orange counties attended a virtual “Pokémon Go” event, astir 10 years aft its release.

People playing mobile games spent $82 cardinal connected in-app purchases globally successful 2024, according to a study from Sensor Tower, an summation of 4% from 2023. While little radical are downloading gaming apps, the study said, they’re spending much clip and wealth connected them.

“We look guardant to further accelerating the team’s creativity done our partnership,” Scopely main gross serviceman Tim O’Brien said successful a statement. “Few games successful the satellite person delivered the standard and longevity of ‘Pokémon GO.’”

The improvement squad moving connected “Pokémon Go,” led by Ed Wu, is staying unneurotic nether Scopely, according to a Wednesday blog post. Wu said the caller ownership would beryllium a affirmative measurement for the game, which helium called his “life’s work.”

Other games acquired by Scopely see “Campfire” and “Wayfarer.” Scopely already has “Monopoly Go,” “Marvel Strike Force” and others successful its portfolio.

“Niantic games person ever been a span to link radical and animate exploration, and I americium assured they volition proceed to bash some arsenic portion of Scopely,” John Hanke, laminitis and main enforcement of Niantic, said successful the Wednesday release.

San Francisco-based Niantic volition clasp its exertion and rotation it into a caller institution called Niantic Spatial Inc., according to a merchandise connected its website, which volition assistance machines larn to interact with the existent satellite utilizing artificial intelligence. The institution volition support its different games that usage the augmented world tech, “Ingress Prime” and “Peridot.”