Niantic to Sell Pokemon GO, Other Games to Saudi-Backed Group in $3.5b Deal
The games and apps made more than $1 billion in revenue last year, Scopely said.
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“Pokemon GO” maker Niantic reached an agreement to sell its gaming business to Savvy Games Group’s subsidiary, Scopely, for $3.5 billion, handing the company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the hit mobile game along with engagement and live-experience apps.
“Pokemon GO,” one of the first videogames to use augmented reality, exploded in popularity after launching in 2016. The game allows players use their smartphone cameras to find and capture virtual creatures. The franchise amassed more than $8 billion in revenue since its inception and the game reaches players in over 190 countries and regions, Savvy Games Group said.
Niantic is also selling “Pikmin Bloom,” a game in collaboration with Nintendo that debuted in 2021, and “Monster Hunter Now,” Niantic’s most recent game that reached more than 15 million downloads following its September 2023 launch. Under the deal, Scopely will also take control of Campfire, an app that connects players, and Wayfarer, a player engagement service.
Scopely said the games and apps, which draw more than 30 million monthly active players, made more than $1 billion in revenue last year. The deal will add three games to its stable, which already includes “MONOPOLY GO!,” “Stumble Guys,” “Star Trek Fleet Command” and “MARVEL Strike Force.”
“This transaction represents one of the largest games deals made by a private company in the last decade, ranking alongside Scopely’s own acquisition by Savvy in 2023 for $4.9 billion,” Tim O’Brien, Scopely’s chief revenue officer, said in a statement.
The deal marks a major structural overhaul for Niantic. The company has struggled to come up with big hits like “Pokemon GO” and slashed dozens of jobs in recent years in an effort to focus on fewer games and develop augmented-reality technology.
Niantic said it planned to spin off its geospatial artificial-intelligence business into a new company, Niantic Spatial, once the deal with Scopely closes. The company said Niantic Spatial would get $250 million of capital, including $200 million from Niantic’s balance sheet and a $50 million investment from Scopely.
Scopely and Niantic expect the deal to close this year, subject to customary closing conditions and completion of a regulatory review.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com
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The Federal Budget may have softened some of its proposed tax reforms, but it has exposed a bigger issue: too many families are relying on wealth structures that no longer reflect the realities of modern life.
3 min
For many Australians, the 2026 Federal Budget initially felt like a direct challenge to the way wealth is created, held and transferred between generations.
The headlines were immediate: changes to capital gains tax, reforms to discretionary trusts, restrictions on negative gearing and increased scrutiny of investment structures. Unsurprisingly, affluent families, business owners and investors began asking the same question:
Is the way we hold our wealth still fit for purpose?
In recent days, the government has announced several significant amendments following industry consultation and public feedback, including exempting testamentary trusts from the proposed 30 per cent minimum tax and expanding capital gains tax concessions for small businesses.
The backdown is welcome. But it also highlights something much bigger.
This Budget has accelerated a conversation that many Australian families have been postponing for years.
The conversation is not really about tax. It is about wealth stewardship.
For decades, Australians have built wealth through businesses, property, investments and careful long-term planning. Yet many families have not revisited the legal structures surrounding those assets in years, sometimes decades.
We often see clients who have spent years building significant wealth, only to discover their legal arrangements no longer reflect their current circumstances.
Their children are now adults. They may own multiple properties.
They may have sold a business, entered a second marriage, become grandparents or accumulated digital assets that did not exist when their original estate plans were prepared.
The trust that distributes income may need to be reconsidered. The bucket company may no longer be so attractive.
The Budget has simply exposed a reality that already existed: wealth structures cannot remain static while life continues to evolve.
Importantly, trusts themselves are not the issue.
Trusts are legitimate planning tools that provide flexibility, protection and continuity. When used appropriately, they allow families to adapt to changing circumstances over time.
And neither is tax the issue, really. Getting the fundamentals right is more important for long-term, sustainable wealth than a few favourable tax treatments around the edges.
The real issue is complacency.
Too often, families create structures and assume the job is done. It isn’t.
Estate planning is no longer a document you sign once and file away in a drawer. It is an ongoing process that should evolve alongside your life.
We are also seeing a broader shift in how Australians define wealth itself. It is no longer just the family home and an investment portfolio.
Modern wealth includes businesses, digital assets, cryptocurrency, intellectual property, frequent flyer points and increasingly complex family arrangements.
At the same time, Australians are living longer than ever before, meaning wealth may need to support multiple generations simultaneously. This creates new responsibilities and new risks.
How do you help your children enter the property market without exposing family wealth to relationship breakdowns?
How do you structure wealth so that it remains a source of opportunity rather than future conflict?
These are the questions families should be asking now.
The recent debate surrounding testamentary trusts also serves as an important reminder that policy decisions can have unintended consequences for vulnerable Australians. It is encouraging that the government has listened to feedback and clarified its position.
But the lesson remains: the wealth landscape is changing.
Increasingly, governments, regulators and tax authorities are paying closer attention to how wealth is held and transferred. That means families cannot afford to adopt a “set-and-forget” approach to their structures.
The families who will be best placed for the future are not necessarily those with the greatest wealth.
They are the families with the greatest clarity. Clarity around ownership, succession and governance. And clarity around how wealth will transition from one generation to the next.
Ultimately, preserving wealth is not about avoiding change.
It is about preparing for it.
Because the greatest risk is not change itself.
It is losing the ability to respond to it.
Anthony Hunt is Co-Founder of Wealth Lawyers and former COO of Westpac Private Bank. He advises business owners, investors and affluent Australian families on wealth protection, succession planning and intergenerational wealth transfer
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