Mobile gaming giant Scopely on Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire Pokémon GO maker Niantic’s gaming division for $3.5 billion. Niantic said that it will add an additional $350 million cash to yield a total value of $3.85 billion to Niantic equity holders.
Niantic’s games roster includes the hit Pokémon GO, which has more than 20 million weekly active players; Pikmin Bloom, a walking game introduced in 2021; Monster Hunter Now, an AR game released in 2023; Campfire, a community interaction platform; and Wayfarer, a tool to contribute new map locations across Niantic games.
Niantic said it will now focus on building real-world 3D maps through a new standalone entity called Niantic Spatial that will be led by the company’s CEO and founder John Hanke. As part of the deal, all employees working on Niantic’s games will join Scopely, which has a workforce of 2,300.
“Niantic games have always been a bridge to connect people and inspire exploration, and I am confident they will continue to do both as part of Scopely. Scopely shares our focus on building and operating incredible live services, has exceptional experience working with the world’s biggest and most beloved intellectual properties, and cares deeply about its player communities and game-making teams,” Hanke said in a statement.
Niantic Spatial will get a $250 million cash infusion — $200 million from Niantic and $50 million from Scopely.
Scopely said players can expect Niantic games, apps, and events to stay true to their spirit. The company, which makes popular titles like “MONOPOLY GO!” and “Stumble Guys,” didn’t specify the future roadmap for Niantic’s games.
Niantic said it will continue to operate Ingress Prime, the revamped version of Niantic’s first game Ingress, and pet simulator game Peridot, under Spatial.
“Scopely is solidifying its position in the mobile games space with this acquisition. The acquisition not only allows them to expand into the augmented reality and geolocation segment, but it also builds on their IP centric strategy by deepening relationships with firms like The Pokémon Company and Capcom, further positioning itself as a key partner for global IP holders,” Darang Candra, gaming analyst firm Niko Partners’ Director for East Asia & Southeast Asia Research told TechCrunch over email.
Niantic has released several titles in recent years that were received well, but it has struggled to match the success of Pokémon GO. Even Pokémon GO players have complained about the rise of paid content and elements in the game in recent months.
Following the pandemic, the company discontinued some high-profile projects, including NBA, Harry Potter, and Marvel games, and has laid off hundreds of employees over the past few years.
Niko Partners’ Candra said that it is hard to make AR + location games exciting because the cost of development and frequent updates is huge. Plus, the popularity of the game also depends on the core IP.
App analytics firm Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that in 2024, Pokémon GO earned over $520 million through in-app purchases, but the next best game, Monster Hunter Now, just earned $86 million, indicating that Niantic wasn’t able to cash in on other titles.
Going forward, Ninatic will focus on collecting real-life location-related data points. Last year, it updated its Scaniverse app to let users create models of real-world objects and provide the data to developers. In November 2023, 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 globally.”
The story has been updated with analyst inputs.
