Tom Gerken
Technological journalist
Getty images
The public investment fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) will pay $ 3.5 billion (2.7 billion pounds Sterling) to buy the game division of the developer Niantic, whose titles include the successful mobile game Pokémon Go.
The game implies that players are walking in the real world to hunt creatures to collect, which appear on their phone screens using augmented reality.
Despite the launch almost a decade ago, Pokémon Go is still among the most profitable mobile games in the world, with 30 million monthly players.
The agreement marks the last stage of Saudi Arabia to develop its game industry, on which it has spent billions of pounds in recent years.
The other niantic games, such as Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom, are also included in the acquisition, as well as the people employed to make them.
They will be part of Scopely Inc – which was itself purchased by the Pif Savvy Games Games group for $ 4.9 billion in 2023.
Scopely is one of the biggest names in the mobile game, with its most successful title, Monopoly Go, downloaded more than 50 million times and generating more than $ 3 billion in income.
Pokémon himself is jointly belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures, which authorized the brand to Niantic so that it could develop the game.
Ed Wu, who heads the Pokémon Go team to Niantic, said in a blog post that he thought that the move was “a positive step” for the future of the game.
“Pokémon Go is more than just a game for me, it’s the work of my life,” he said.
“I will not say that Pokémon Go will remain the same, because it has always been a work in progress.
“But the way we create and evolve, it will remain unchanged, and I hope that we can improve the experience.”
Saudi Arabia becomes an increasingly powerful player of the game.
Its PIF has participations in some of the largest publishers in the industry, such as Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive.
He also made waves in the Esports industry, with Saudi Arabia organizing major tournaments, including the Esports World Cup in recent years, which had a pool of more than $ 60 million.
Riyadh will also host the planned Olympic matches of 2027.
The PIF of Saudi Arabia has hundreds of billions of assets because of its oil wealth, which it has invested a lot in sports such as golf, boxing and football, including a purchase of Newcastle United in an agreement of 300 million pounds Sterling in 2021.
He is controlled by Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of the country, whose government has been accused of human rights violations.
A 2019 United Nations report said that “the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible for” the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who criticized the country’s government.
Saudi Arabia has always denied it.
