Pokémon Go 2 isn't on the cards, but Niantic has big plans under new

Don't expect Pokémon Go 2 any time soon.

"I think that doing a sequel within a franchise is pretty clearly not the correct thing to do," says Ed Wu, Scopely's president of games and former SVP of Pokémon Go at Niantic.

"There's such a big community because of the way that our games can be a part of folks's lives wherever they go, however they explore the world. Creating a sequel that divides the community doesn't make as much sense. If and when we do something new, it will really have to be from a different angle, but still with this notion of inspiring people to explore the world together."

Pokémon Go is undoubtedly the jewel in Niantic's crown. The location-based monster catcher is closing in on its tenth anniversary, and has been downloaded more than 500 million times, generating over $8.8 billion in revenue according to AppMagic estimates.

But it's not the only big title in Niantic's portfolio, which also includes games like Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now – all of which were acquired by Monopoly Go maker Scopely in May 2025, in a deal worth $3.5 billion.

Scopely is a subsidiary of Savvy Games Group, which in turn is the video games division of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Last September, the PIF was part of a consortium that entered into an agreement to buy Electronic Arts – it will allegedly own more than 93% of EA if the acquisition is successful.

Now, as Scopely celebrates the first anniversary of its acquisition of Niantic Games, GamesIndustry.biz caught up with the firm to find out how the landmark deal came about, how Niantic has been integrated into Scopely, and what the future holds.

A good fit

Wu says that the acquisition deal emerged from conversations between executives at Scopely and Niantic over the course of several years. The two firms realised that they would be a good fit for each other.

"We really saw eye to eye with this deep focus on community," says Wu.

"Both companies make mobile games, but they recognise that mobile games are not just code. They're fundamentally a compact between the development team that builds them and a community that surrounds them. That's why these games can have the kind of lasting power and longevity of not just months or years, but decades."

A large portion of Niantic's success has been with licensed properties, chiefly Pokémon, Pikmin, and Monster Hunter (although Harry Potter title Wizards Unite didn't take and shut down in 2022). A reliance on licenses rather than owned IP is often seen as a weakness in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, but Scopely's head of M&A operations, Heather Tacskovics, argues that the company viewed this business focus as a strength.

"Scopely really is a company founded on beloved IP," she says. "It already felt very much in our wheelhouse and in fact, the opposite of a risk. It's something we thought was a great asset, because we've really seen the power of this IP. We couldn't have a better match in terms of this enduring beloved IP being used in the game in a way that is such a great fit. I would say it would be the opposite of a risk and one of the features that was very appealing to us."

Scopely only purchased Niantic's games arm; the tech side of the business was spun out as Niantic Spatial. The latter kept hold of two games – Ingress and Peridot – although in April, Niantic Spatial announced Peridot will be closing down later this year.

Niantic Spatial was set up with $250 million in funding; $200 million of this was from Niantic, with Scopely investing $50 million. The Savvy-owned firm felt that having a games business and a tech business under the same umbrella was doing both a disservice.

"It's extraordinarily difficult for a company the size of Niantic to have essentially two business focuses and two customers in mind at the same time, a B2B business and a B2C business," Wu explains.

Tacskovics adds: "We're a games company. We're the No.1 mobile games company in the US. That's the core of what we want to continue being, so bringing over the games really made the most sense for us. Being those two things within one company was not necessarily serving the greatest purpose for all involved. It's difficult to truly be a games company, or truly be a technology and research company when you are under one umbrella. It was the best of all worlds for us to really stay true to ourselves and only acquire the games part of the business."

Niantic Games and Niantic Spatial don't appear to have much of a relationship, either; Wu says that they've done their best to "separate as cleanly as possible".

"It's important for both sides to focus on their respective missions," he says.

Acquisitions and integration

Scopely is a big player in the games industry and is constantly keeping an eye on the market for potential acquisitions. In 2025, Tacskovics says that the Monopoly Go giant spoke to 800 potential partners, which allows the company to really understand what makes companies attractive, on top of the usual fundamentals and key performance indicators.

"For us, one really positive sign is cultural fit," she explains. "These are going to be your working partners, we hope forever. You really want to make sure that these are people that you can work together with, that there's going to be good collaboration. In terms of features of a business, we're in it for the long term. We're not looking to churn out short-term hits. We really want people that are in that long-term operator mindset of being really player centric and having enduring games. It's those things that are really positive signs.

"We also want to understand how we can be better together. What's the point of coming together? What's the point of joining forces? What can we bring to the table? We have some great central technology at Scopely called Playgami. That can really bring a lot of analytics and insights to the table as well. How can we leverage those? Would we be better if we joined forces, and if so, how? Are we aligned on that? Those are all really positive signs that this could be a really fruitful partnership."

As well as helping to instigate and close M&A, the other side of Tacskovics' role is how to ensure that newly purchased companies are integrated as painlessly as possible into Scopely. In order to do this in a way that minimises disruption, she says that there needs to be a "foundation of understanding" on both sides of the table before close to figure out "culturally what's important to people." Although she adds that there is no set formula, and that she prefers a "strategic and customised approach" for each new addition.

"It was especially critical that we did nothing disruptive to that business"

Heather Tacskovics

"In a situation like [Niantic], where it's essentially a carve out, you also need to understand where there's going to be gaps left, because they weren't functioning as two separate businesses," she continues. "There was some complexity around that. There is no check list where we say we always do these specific things, jam it together and we're good to go. That's often where you see the wheels fall off. It's about asking what a business needs." At around the time of the deal, there were a small number of layoffs at Niantic Spatial, which had previously been announced in March 2025, but Scopely did not make any layoffs at Niantic Games after the acquisition.

The deal closed in peak live event season for Pokémon Go, which added extra pressure to proceedings.

"It was especially critical that we did nothing disruptive to that business," Tacskovics continues. "Taking the time to understand what's important to the business, what obligations they have, how we can support to make sure that they can continue to be so successful and operate seamlessly and then collaborating together on those points. Everything was done in collaboration with Niantic versus something that was just decided on the Scopely side."

The future

Wu says that being part of Scopely has been a "huge breath of fresh air" that has allowed the company to look further into the future.

"We have felt constrained in many ways in terms of the horizon that we can look out on for at least a couple of years now as we've gone through the acquisition process," he says. "That meant we were always looking to the next week, the next quarter. Being able to breathe in this oxygen allows us to look much further into the distance – more than five years, a decade plus – and look at what would we like to become, what would we like to continue to do.

"We really do believe in the capacity of technology to inspire people to explore the world together. Bringing that to hundreds of millions more people globally is both our calling as well as great business prerogative. There's so much that we can do there. There's so many markets that are growing and developing all around the world, and new generations of people are coming into our games."

First and foremost, Wu wants to grow the audience. Second, he wants to look at new technology and new potential partners. "We are thinking about the next sort of experiences we can create," he says. "But always with this focus on inspiring people to explore the world together."