Earlier this year, Pokémon Go Maker Niantic announced that it will sell its mobile gaming portfolio to exclusive Go owners for $3.5 billion in a lightly corned move, celebrated by a portion of the game’s dedicated player base.
For some fans, the new ownership finally meant freedom from former owner Niantic focusing on pushing mostly unwanted augmented reality features into the game. (After sale, Niantic was basically rebranded under a fresh title, Niantic space, and pursuing AR technology was the only goal.) By comparison, the scope is completely gaming-focused.
However, for other fans, especially those who played other scopely titles, the change has sparked concerns about the possibility of increased monetization and the involvement of Savvy Games, the parent company of Scopely, the product of Saudi Arabia’s controversial public investment fund.
As part of his first interview since the $3.5 billion acquisition was completed earlier this month, I sat down with Pokemon GO Director Michael Stellanka to discuss the impact of the game change.
“I basically moved one block away, so that wasn’t much different,” Stelanca begins. He is sitting in a Pokemon Go brand deck chair at the game’s Big Go Fest 2025 live event last weekend in Paris. “It was actually one of our overflow offices anyway, so it was a really familiar space.
“The most notable thing about this transition so far is how uninterrupted it is,” he adds. “It was very business as usual.”
For PokémonGo, business means regular business, a continuous busy schedule of in-game events and additional Pokemon releases, physical events such as Go Fest 2025, and Pokemon GO Road Trip 2025, the debut of the mystical mobile events series that will begin later this month in the UK and will be held at Cologne in August. Through this, and throughout its acquisition period, Steanka says that Pokemon GO continues as normal – it’s still in the early days, as he admits.
“The (acquisition) was completely closed during Osaka GoFest, so the team was so busy that it probably wouldn’t be intentionally destructive at this moment,” he points out. “But the feeling I’ve been through all the conversations with the people at Scopely is that the way they run is very infringing with the individual game teams.
“You know, our full development team has moved with us. In the daily life we interact with, we are all still lining up the ladder to Edwoo, the leader of the team within Niantic, who is still in scope.”
So, what will change? Start with a positive for most Pokémon GO fans. This is likely to reduce the focus of future AR-focused gameplay.
“The key to perhaps a little less prioritized is the focus of augmented reality,” admits Stelanca. “It’s no secret that many players aren’t very excited about some of the AR systems that have been added to the game over the years because we believe that adding AR features to Pokémon Go will be something really fun and exciting for us as a team.”
Unlike Niantic, Scopely is a company entirely dedicated to video games. Stelanca says she describes her team as a “breath of fresh air.”
“It’s philosophically great. Or I think it’s great to be in a company that’s completely dedicated to the game, because we feel like we’ve had a bit of a struggle on the Niantic side,” he says. “It’s about the company’s overall priorities and where we want to invest in, and what kind of company initiatives we’re driving on Scopely. We’re going to be very focused on what’s best for this game.
Despite recent changes to increase the amount of in-game features available to fans playing remotely, and the introduction of new items such as Lucky Trinket and the expensive upcoming Golden Bottle Cap, Stelanca says players are looking at the roadmap of the Pokemon Go team’s own features and planning it a few months in advance.
“That’s kind of funny because some of the recent changes we made in the game are things players have been hoping for a while, and many of the online chatters I’ve seen suspect that, ‘Oh, this must be because of the scopely acquisition.’ “These are things we have been working on.
“But to be fair, Scopely didn’t come in and said, ‘Hey, don’t do that.’ They are very supportive of so many things, everything we had already planned our roadmap.
Certainly, regarding plans for the game’s future, and suggestions that new owners may come and start to add new ones to Pokemon GO’s existing content schedule, Steanka says that the Pokémon Go team has already been “almost planned for the next two years, but essentially changes over time.”
Shortly after the sale was first announced, Stelanca sat long in her heart with Train Tip, perhaps the longest Pokemon GO player on YouTube, for an insightful interview aimed at easing the fears of the first fans about the game’s future. A few months later, and now the deal is over, I asked Stellanka where he thought up the community’s feelings about the game, and that new ownership was now standing.
“I think skeptical people will remain skeptical,” replies Stelanca. “The biggest thing we can do is prove over time that this is actually a great direction for the game to go. But I’m sure people have seen a little more optimism for the future, especially after interviewing Trainlight.
“I’ve heard great things about scopes. I think actions speak more eloquent than words, but so far, actions have been great and there’s all the hopes that they’ll continue over the next few years.”
Still, in addition to this enthusiasm, I was hoping to ask about the Niantic’s non-now Pokemon GO team and the familiar game-owned Scopley matchup. In the past, Pokémon Go has often been positioned as a comprehensive game run by progressive leadership. I asked Stelanca what internal conversations would be like about it being owned by a Saudi Arabian company and what that would mean for the upcoming game.
“It was definitely something I was interested in personally when I met Walter Driver, co-CEO and founder of Scopely,” admits Steanka. “I spoke to that head with him, and his perspective on that really resonated with me.
“The number one (Pokemon GO) teams are rarely directly involved in their familiarity. In most cases, they just make the scoped way they want to manipulate. Number two wants to interact with people from all kinds of backgrounds.
“And I think it’s actually at the heart of our philosophy about Pokemon Go as a game. We want people to meet with other people in their community, find a common position and fully believe in their power to improve the world from that type of community-first approach.
“Yeah, I don’t think there’s any change because I’m a lot of massive changes and I’m not familiar with them. If that means we have the funds we need to invest in the areas we want to invest in all the time, that’s what I’m really excited about. This is great.
Earlier this year, another Saudi Arabian company, SNK, frowned upon the inclusion of European football star Cristian Ronaldo in his new game Fury: City of the Wolves, just as Ronaldo himself solidified himself within the Saudi football league.
“I saw that,” Stelanca says.
What you’re saying is, don’t expect Ronaldo from Pokemon Go anytime soon, I ask.
“Definitely,” Stelanca’s reply. “Yeah, that’s not our vibe within Pokemon GO.”
Tom Phillips is the news editor for Passthecontroller. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
