Niantic, developer of Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom officially announced on March 12 that they would be selling their game business to Scopely. News of the $3.5 billion deal left many Pokémon Go players worried about whether Scopely’s acquisition will affect how the game is developed and managed. Niantic recently addressed these concerns.
As IT Media Mobile reports, a general meeting between the two companies took place in Japan on April 9, where, among other things, representatives of Niantic made their first public comment on the future of their game business after the original announcement in March:
“The direction of our game will not undergo any major changes under the influence of Scopely. They will just be supporting its further improvement, and we will keep doing what we’ve been doing since the beginning. To put it more bluntly – please rest assured that we will not be shutting down the game.”
Niantic’s representatives have also added that the acquisition by Scopely was a result of a thorough evaluation of their titles’ performance and reception among players, meaning that Scopely sees value in their games and wants them to continue.
Speaking of which, the aforementioned general meeting between Niantic and Scopely was held in the wake of a new in-game feature being implemented in Pokémon Go – the Pokémon Stamp Rally. Currently a Japan-only feature, the Pokémon Stamp Rally prompts players to go to certain locations and collect stamps, which in return will allow them to acquire special items and encounter rare Pokémon. The first Stamp Rally event is set to start on April 13, with the location being Osaka World EXPO.
