Pokémon GO Developer Niantic Reportedly In Talks To "Sell Games Unit"

If a sale does go through, hopefully they’ll reverse the terrible character designs.

Ugh....not $copely

Niantic is definitely following through on their master plan. Collect data on real world objects and locations, then create a giant virtual map of the world with AI.

If this will happen i will stop playing the game

I mean, maybe people would still play Pokemon GO and have Niantic would have a higher reputation if they didn't make it so anti-consumer. Making it hard to get ahead, or in some places even play, without microtransactions, repetitive missions, slow updates that don't change the game much when they finally arrive, etc. Oh, and no, I don't see it getting much better under a Saudi company.

insert Jeremy Clarkson meme here

This could be a good thing if they get rid of some of the more anti-consumer and/or chance-based elements of the game.

And perhaps make in-game prices more reasonable as Niantic have been jacking up their prices lately, for even the most middling of tickets.

I quit playing this game years ago at this point, and have no desire to return. But I didn't know Niantic were struggling in any department, the success of GO made me think they were practically swimming in money and all. I guess not!

I check in with Pokémon GO! every day but I’ll delete it in a heartbeat if this is what happens.

I dip in and out but my kids still play it. Honestly it’s a shame Nintendo don’t buy this one title off them and run it themselves.

Where does this leave Niantic though? Pokémon Go was built on top of Ingress, a game built on Google Maps. They started to use Pokémon Go as a way to collect AR data to build some sort of digital twin mapping system (whilst ignoring Google Earth) but without that feed of constant data what’s even left? The Scaniverse market isn’t so big as to replace it.

Well the biggest hype is long over and it seems impossible to recreate the magic of Pokémon Go. They peaked and now they're just looking to sell all the data they collected, probably. It seems like a smart business move, but selling it to a Saudi party seems shady. I don't think they will have the best interest of the employees at heart, for instance.

I lost interest when I felt it was becoming a second job. Liverpool raids are pretty poop unless it’s a community day in my experience.

All my fave Pokemon end up behind a paywall.

Weird the gaming side of the company is worth that much when they don't own any of the things that actually make the money.

The Pokémon.

@SillyG scopely considers $99.99 a good standard price for a microtransaction.
and if you don't buy new content for that price, you have to wait 6 months for a free option that slowly unlocks content over the course of 3-4 months.

scopely will make it worse, not better.

I'm a regular player but genuinely, how could a game and company that's years past its peak be worth $3.5bn?

The comment above me shows why this is probably a good deal for Niantic to take. $3.5bn is a lot of money for a struggling division.

I know this is a long shot, but it would be nice if Nintendo puts in a bid to buy Pokemon Go.

That’s nuts. Almost the price George sold Star Wars/Lucasfilm to Disney for. 🤯

@Yosher they would have been swimming in money if they didn’t cater so much for their shareholders and invested more in their products and clients.

It's hard to imagine the game getting any less fun or more anti-consumer than it already is. I've played since launch, and it's been a steady march downhill ever since then. What started off as a lot of fun became a vehicle for constantly weaponizing FOMO against the user in the hopes that they'll purchase one in-game item or another. They trickle new pokemon out pathetically, usually in the form of raids that haven't been fun to complete in years, or as part of special events which are tiring to keep track of and keep up with.

It's quite a coincidence that this news is coming out after I recently decided I wouldn't be wasting any more time on PoGo. I assume a big percentage of their player base had already made a similar decision.

R.I.P.

Yes, I quit a month or so ago and happy to see that others are doing that as well. I played since launch but imo they overdid the prices on the items and tickets. So many paid tickets, it's absurd.

They shot themselves in the foot with the remote pass nerf / incense nerf and increasing the prices.