Niantic Inc. is reportedly set to sell its video game development business to Scopely Inc. Talks are underway and are believed to be finalized in just a few weeks for a reported value of around $3.5 billion (~RM 15.6 billion). The sale to the Saudi Arabian-owned company involves all of Niantic's IP including Pokemon Go.
Although Pokemon Go was the game with the highest number of players in the world in 2016, its popularity has waned with Niantic failing to test the success of its other games. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, for example, was terminated in 2022 after just three years of launch. As a result, 230 employees were laid off and one studio was closed in 2023.
With the business sold, Niantic may focus on developing artificial intelligence (AI). Last year, the Large Geospatial Model (LGM) was announced, which was trained using Pokemon Go and Ingress player data.