Monopoly Go! game maker Scopely to buy Pokémon Go team

AFP

12 Mar, 2025 08:21 PM2 mins to read

The deal will add Pokemon Go to a stable that includes popular mobile title Monopoly Go! Photo / 123RF

Mobile games giant Scopely will pay $3.5 billion (NZ$6.1b) to acquire Niantic’s game unit including the studio behind Pokémon Go, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The purchase will add Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now teams to a Scopely stable that includes popular mobile title Monopoly Go!.

“We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world,” Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said of Niantic.

“We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership.”

San Francisco-based Niantic plans to spin off its geospatial artificial intelligence business into a new company led by founder and chief executive John Hanke.

Niantic is known for mobile games that combine real-world mapping and exploration with play by synching challenges or accomplishments with locations detected by smartphones.

More than 100 million people play Niantic games, according to the company.

“We spun out as a small team from Google with a bold vision: to use technology to overlay the world with rich digital experiences,” Niantic said of separating from the internet giant in late 2015.

“Our goal: to inspire people to explore their surroundings and foster real-world connections, especially at a time when relationships were becoming increasingly digital.”

Niantic sees the rapid advance of AI as an opportunity to put its geospatial technology to work in consumer and business applications along with games.

The new company, called Niantic Spatial, is developing a model to enable people and machines to understand and navigate the real world.