Scopely Games, the company behind mobile titles such as Monopoly GO!, Stumble Guys, and Marvel Strike Force, have recently acquired mobile game and AR industry giant Niantic in a massive $3.5bn deal. This purchase includes all of Niantic’s services, teams, apps, and most importantly to many of us — games — meaning they will become the new owners of not only the world-renowned Pokémon GO, but Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now as well.

According to a statement made by Niantic:

As it’s always important to me, and our entire game team, that our community understands and is excited by the long-term vision for this game, I want to share why I believe a partnership with Scopely will be a positive step for all of you and the game’s future.

Taken from Niantic’s statement regarding the company acquisition, which you can read in full here: https://pokemongolive.com/post/moving-to-a-new-home-2025?hl=en

Scopely meanwhile is reassuring the playerbase:

Our approach at Scopely is to empower gamemakers to deliver the best possible player experiences for their communities and go after the roadmaps that they’re most inspired to pursue. With this acquisition, our role is to support the Niantic team on their creative journey, providing the space, resources, and freedom to innovate and iterate on what makes these games meaningful to you.

Read Scopely’s full statement here: https://www.scopely.com/en/news/a-message-to-the-pokemon-go-pikmin-bloom-and-monster-hunter-now-communities

Could this be good news for the games in question? We already know Niantic have had a plethora of issues in Pokémon GO alone, from botched updates, Gigantamax raids causing all sorts of issues, and even over 150 bugs and counting occurring in New Zealand — who are lovingly dubbed by the community as ‘beta testers’. Will the handover mean we see less or more of these issues arise?

There appears to be a lot of uncertainty over the company’s acquisition amongst fans of Pokémon GO, citing concerns over the possibility of increased microtransactions or monetization on a deeper scale.  However this is mostly conjecture – right now there is no telling what the future for Pokémon GO and other former Niantic-owned services, teams, apps, and games will actually bring.

Although Scopely claims that “the entire Pokémon GO team is staying together through this partnership”, it remains to be seen if this will last beyond the handover stage as well.

What do you think of this acquisition?

Edited by Arcaneum and bobandbill.

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