Niantic, the developer behind the widely popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go, is reportedly seeking to sell its game development division, according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources.
The company is exploring a potential deal with mobile game developer Scopely, owned by the Saudi Arabia-based Savvy Games Group, for approximately $3.5 million. Neither Niantic nor Scopely responded immediately to requests for comment.
Niantic has distinguished itself as one of the few companies successfully leveraging augmented reality to create engaging games. Its debut title, Ingress, received acclaim for its innovative, geography-based approach to territory control, but it gained widespread recognition with the launch of Pokémon Go in 2016, which became a global sensation.While its subsequent releases have had some success, they have not reached the same level as Pokémon Go. In 2022, Niantic reduced its workforce by 8% and canceled four projects, including Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. In 2023, the company laid off 230 employees and scrapped its plans for NBA and Marvel-themed games.
Last year, Niantic enhanced its Scaniverse app, allowing users to create 3D models of real-world objects to share data with developers. In November, the company expressed its ambition to develop a comprehensive geospatial model that would utilize machine learning to “understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes globally.”
