The mobile gaming giant on Wednesday said it agreed to acquire the gaming division of Pokemon GO maker Niantic for $3.5 billion. Niantic said it would add $350 million in cash to bring Niantic Equity Holders a total of $3.855 billion worth.
Niantic’s game roster includes the hit Pokemon Go, with over 20 million active players each week. Pikmin Bloom, a walking game introduced in 2021. Monster Hunter Now, an AR game released in 2023. Campfire, a community interaction platform. Wayfarer, a tool that provides new map locations throughout the Niantic game.
Niantic said it will focus on building real-world 3D maps through a new standalone entity called Niantic Spatial, led by the company’s CEO and founder John Hanke. As part of the deal, all employees working on the Niantic game will join Scopely. This has a workforce of 2,300 people.
“Niantic Games are always a bridge that connects people and inspires exploration, and I’m sure they will continue to do it as part of the scope. Scopely focuses on building and running incredible live services, with exceptional experience working with the world’s largest and most beloved intellectual property, and is deeply concerned about the player community and game production team,” Hanke said in a statement.
Niantic Spatial will win a $250 million cash injection. That’s $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 that creates popular titles like “Monopoly Go!” and “Stumble” did not specify a roadmap for the future of Niantic games.
Niantic said they will continue to control Ingress Prime, an improved version of Niantic’s first game Ingress, and Pet Simulator game Peridot under Spatial.
Niantic has released several titles in recent years, which have been well received, but struggled with the success of Pokémon Go. Even Pokémon GO players have been complaining about the rise of paid content and elements in the game over the last few months.
Following the pandemic, the company has cancelled high-profile projects such as the NBA, Harry Potter and the Marvel Games, and fired hundreds of employees in the past few years.
Going forward, Ninatic will focus on collecting data points related to real locations. Last year, we updated the Scaiverse app to allow users to model real objects and provide data to developers. In November 2023, the company said it wanted to use machine learning to build a large-scale geospatial model that “understands the scene and connects to millions of scenes around the world.”
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