Pokemon Go Developer In Talks To Sell Games Division To Saudi Arabia’s Savvy For $3.5 Billion – Report
Pokemon Go developer Niantic is reportedly in discussions to sell its games division to Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely Inc for roughly $3.5 billion. Scopely was acquired by Saudi Arabia owned Savvy Games in 2023 for $4.9 billion.
Reported by Bloomberg, the deal could be announced in the coming weeks, although an agreement has not yet been made, so the deal could fall through. The deal is specifically for Niantic’s games division and not the AR company in its entirety. The purchase would include Niantic’s current games as well, including the highly popular Pokemon Go. Both companies declined to comment on the Bloomberg report. Niantic partnered with Savvy Games to expand Pokemon Go operations into Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt (via Pocketgamer.biz).
This report comes after Niantic has struggled to find success for its titles outside of Pokemon Go. The company’s Harry Potter mobile game shut down in 2021 and Niantic laid off 230 people in 2023 after canceling a Marvel project and shutting down NBA All-World.
Saudi Arabia has been investing heavily in games in recent years. In 2022, it was reported that the country was looking to invest $38 billion into video game companies and it has made significant investments in companies like Nintendo. The deal to purchase Niantic’s games division would be one of the larger investments the country has made in an effort to diversify the country’s economic investments.
In 2024 Niantic announced that it had used Pokemon Go player data to train a real-world navigation AI, with the company later stating it doesn’t want that data used for war. Recently, the company announced a partnership between Major League Baseball and Pokemon Go to place themed PokeStops in stadiums, in addition to some clubs hosting Pokemon Go nights during the baseball season.
NoxPlayer is a free Android emulator for playing mobile games on PC and Mac, supporting Android 5, 7, 8, and 9, and compatible with Intel, AMD, and Apple processors. You can run NoxPlayer perfectly on commonly-used operating systems like Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, and iOS.
Visit our site to learn more about NoxPlayer : www.bignox.com