{"id":266,"date":"2025-03-12T18:05:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T18:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/2025\/03\/12\/pokemon-go-developer-niantics-3-5b-deal-with-saudi-owned-scopely\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T18:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T18:05:40","slug":"pokemon-go-developer-niantics-3-5b-deal-with-saudi-owned-scopely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pokemon Go\u2019 developer Niantic&#8217;s $3.5b deal with Saudi-owned Scopely"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Niantic Labs said it would sell its video-game division to Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely for $3.5 billion, as the US augmented reality firm shifts focus to geospatial technology after failing to recreate the success of its 2016 smash hit \u201cPokemon Go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The deal, announced on Wednesday, also advances Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambitions to become the \u201cultimate global hub\u201d for gaming. The kingdom\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, via Savvy Games, bought Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023 as part of a broader push by the country to diversify beyond fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>Niantic said it would distribute an extra $350 million to its equity holders under the deal. It will also spin off its geospatial AI business into a new firm called Niantic Spatial, which will be led by Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke.<\/p>\n<p>Niantic Spatial will be funded with $250 million of capital &#8211; $200 million from Niantic\u2019s balance sheet and $50 million from Scopely. All of Niantic\u2019s original investors will also continue to be shareholders of Niantic Spatial.<\/p>\n<p>The move follows several tough years for Niantic. After \u201cPokemon Go\u201d became one of the successful mobile games, the company struggled to replicate its success and had to lay off employees in 2022 and 2023. It also axed the \u201cHarry Potter: Wizards Unite\u201d vide-game in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>For Saudi, already a growing hub for gaming and home to the Esports World Cup, the deal builds on a plan to invest nearly $38 billion in initiatives related to the industry through its Savvy Games Group.<\/p>\n<p>Savvy Games is a major investor in global video-game companies including Nintendo, in which it has a stake of around 7.54% after a small cut in its interest last year.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Niantic Labs said it would sell its video-game division to Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely for $3.5 billion, as the US augmented reality firm shifts focus to geospatial technology after failing to recreate the success of its 2016 smash hit \u201cPokemon Go.\u201d The deal, announced on Wednesday, also advances Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambitions to become the \u201cultimate global [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}