Scopely to acquire Niantic games business

MONOPOLY GO! and Stumble Guys developer Scopely will acquire Niantic‘s games business, including Pokemon GO, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, and the development teams behind them, for $3.5 billion, with an additional $350 million of cash from Niantic being distributed as part of the deal, Niantic announced.

“Scopely’s focus on building and operating incredible live services, its exceptional experience working with the world’s biggest and most beloved intellectual property, and care for its player communities and game-making teams make it the perfect fit for our games,” Niantic said in the announcement. “Our game team has exciting long-term roadmaps that they will continue to build upon as part of Scopely. This partnership ensures that our games have the long term support needed to be ‘forever games’ that will endure for future generations. Players can expect that the games, apps, services, and events they know and love will continue to receive Scopely’s ongoing investment, driven by the same teams that have always created these experiences.”

More information about the acquisition of Niantic’s games business is available on the Scopely blog, as well as a message from Scopely co-CEOs Javier Ferreira and Walter Drive, and a message from Pokemon GO team lead Ed Wu.

Meanwhile, Niantic will spin off its geospatial artificial intelligence business into a new company called Niantic Spatial. Led by John hanke, Niantic Spatial will be funded with $250 million of capital, including $200 million from Niantic’s balance sheet and a $50 million investment from Scopely. All of Niantic’s original investors will also continue to be shareholders of Niantic Spatial.