Niantic’s Next Chapter: Introducing a New Home for Niantic Games and a New Future for Niantic Spatial Inc.
/Today we’re announcing changes at Niantic that will set us on a bold new course.
Nearly a decade ago, we spun out as a small team from Google with a bold vision: to use technology to overlay the world with rich digital experiences. Our goal: to inspire people to explore their surroundings and foster real-world connections, especially at a time when relationships were becoming increasingly digital.
To bring this mission and technology to life, we started building games; today, more than 100 million people play our games annually, with more than a billion friend connections made across the world.
People have discovered their neighborhoods, explored new places, and moved more than 30 billion miles. They’ve also come together at our live events – where everyone is a participant, not just a spectator – contributing over a billion dollars in economic impact in the cities that host them.
As we grew, the company naturally evolved along two complementary paths – one focused on creating games and bringing them to the world, and the other dedicated to advancing augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and geospatial technology.
Meanwhile, the rapid progress in AI reinforces our belief in the future of geospatial computing to unlock new possibilities for both consumer experiences and enterprise applications. At the same time, we remain committed to creating “forever games” that will last for generations.
To achieve these goals, we are making two major announcements today:
First, for Niantic Inc., we have reached an agreement for Scopely, a world leader in mobile games, to acquire Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, and the incredible teams working on these experiences, for $3.5 billion from Scopely with an additional $350 million of cash from Niantic being distributed as part of the deal, yielding a total value of approximately $3.85 billion for Niantic equity holders.