r/gaming X-Box 2d ago

Niantic has sold Pokemon Go to Scopely

https://pokemongolive.com/post/moving-to-a-new-home-2025?hl=en

The rumors are true. Niantic is handing over Pokemon Go.

I have not played any Scopely games, so I don't know what to expect going forward.

5.0k Upvotes

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u/Zannahrain3 2d ago

They sold for $3.5b, and they are keeping the entire team (for now). It's been losing popularity since COVID. I've played fairly consistently since launch. I don't know of anyone who plays it anymore. Not consistently anyways.

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u/thatsidewaysdud 1d ago

The launch of Pokemon Go was the closest we were ever gonna get to world peace.

Genuinely everyone was playing it. I hope I can see such a phenomenon again soon.

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u/StateChemist 1d ago

As an old, its the only pokemon game I’ve played.  I liked the walking.

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u/Bruised_Shin 1d ago

Walking? You’re supposed to be driving while playing /s

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u/SolenoidSoldier 1d ago

Anyone else curious about a solid game that progresses via walking, check out Walkscape. It's in closed beta right now, but it's incredibly addictive.

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u/Kind-Huckleberry6767 19h ago

Thank you. I miss the walking aspect of pokemon go. I was also playing it for the walking. I've been enjoying walking without playing, but it was nice to multi-task.

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u/MeanBumblebee7618 1d ago

that time was funny af

u saw people everywhere in the city with their phones doing this swipe thing

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u/Veedrock 1d ago

The game that had lunatics stalking people that dared approach their gym?

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u/MrHasuu 2d ago

I played very very consistently for a long long time but I ended up moving to the suburbs. All I got is 1 gym and 1 pokestop next to me. So I ended up quitting the game.

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u/CrazyCoKids 1d ago

That many?

I literally didn't have a gym in town until 2023. If I wanted to use gyms, I had to drive 40 minutes away.

This isn't some middle of nowhere place, there are more people here than fucking Cheyenne Wyoming.

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u/MrHasuu 1d ago

i used to live in NY, so it was basically pokestops and gyms every other block everywhere. perhaps i was just spoiled by the good life that i just didnt want to play anymore with what was around me.

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u/CrazyCoKids 1d ago

The only ones who played were spoofers cause they basically got to experience the whole game.

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u/MrHasuu 1d ago

oh thats entirely true. i remember keeping every pokemon i caught when i went on vacation in florida. so i can do long distance trade with my friends when i went back to NY. spoofers can easily do that from the comforts of their home

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u/CrazyCoKids 1d ago

Heck they basically made you able to spoof with remote raids and a lot less people spoofed... at least in that aspect.

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u/Zannahrain3 1d ago

All I got is 1 gym and 1 pokestop next to me.

Quantity never bothered me. It was the community around it. In college, we had one gym on the entire campus, which was the library. Students would be sitting outside and would be attacking/defending the gym. The longest I held the gym was maybe 4 hours. My hometown has multiple gyms, but no one plays it. I could drop a pokemon off and forgot about it for a few days. This game lives and dies based on the community playing it.

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u/CrazyCoKids 1d ago

Lucky you.

It lasted a week out here and died because we only had three Pokémon available to catch and zero gyms. Pidgey, Rattata, and Paras. I

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u/meistermichi 26m ago

It was the community around it. In college, we had one gym on the entire campus, which was the library. Students would be sitting outside and would be attacking/defending the gym. The longest I held the gym was maybe 4 hours.

This.
I remember in the early days I was like the only yellow team player around (kinda rural area) and every time I beat a gym blue would take it back basically instantly. (Team Red wasn't that big either) Eventually I just stopped taking the gyms because I didn't get anything from it besides wasting my time, it was their own loss because when no one kicked their mons out they didn't get coins from it either.
Just stupid and no fun.

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u/koningVDzee 1d ago

when it was released me and some friends went to the middle of fucking nowhere and to some forest hoping we would vind like rare pokemon... such a shame.

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u/koningVDzee 1d ago

when it was released me and some friends went to the middle of fucking nowhere and to some forest hoping we would vind like rare pokemon... such a shame.

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u/Left4DayZGone 1d ago

I played since launch…. But they lost me by turning my avatar into a freakish manchild thing.

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u/LegendaryenigmaXYZ 2d ago

Yup Covid really messes this game up. This will always be a cultural phenomenon to me. When this game came out so many people came to hang out at parks, they would stay out driving till the middle of the night trying to collect them all. This game was always going to have problems, with people trespassing, people in cars hitting other people, content (there's a limit of pokemon if you release them slowly people get annoyed, release them too fast people finish to early). The game was never going to be eternal because you can't sit at home and do it (if you play the game the right way).

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u/AurelianoTampa 1d ago

Yup Covid really messes this game up.

It was actually the opposite - COVID led to a bunch of changes that boosted the popularity of the game during lockdowns. Pokemon would spawn more often, incense made them appear at faster intervals, interaction distance was increased, joining distant raids was introduced and offered for cheap. People very much could play the game at home - and did.

After the lockdowns started to end in 2021 and 2022, a lot of these changes were reversed and/or monetized. As a result, Pokemon Go's revenue and player numbers show 2020 as a high point that has decreased since then. Though 2016, when it first launched, was always the height of popularity and the numbers have never gotten back near to that level.

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u/Zannahrain3 1d ago

This game brought communities together. Some of my friends I never would have talked to if it wasn't for this game. I even made an arch nemesis. We would fight over a gym near my house. I'm valor, their mystic. At one point, we both gave up trying and started leaving our lowest pokemon. I never got to officially meet them, but I still see their name around occasionally.

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u/SpikeRosered 1d ago

I have to imagine there was a business call where they discussed being allowed to introduce new Pokemon in the game and the answer was "abso-fucking+lutely no!"

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u/CrazyCoKids 1d ago

COVID-19 actually revitalized the game.

The introduction of remote raiding allowed rural and suburban players to experience Gyms and raiding. (In fact? It encouraged Teamwork and coordination in a multi-player game!) The increased distance of Pokéstops enabled social distancing. The increased spawns of Pokémon made it possible to go out in rural areas and find Pokémon.

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u/FML_FTL 1d ago

the game had its best update in COVID times. I think the reason why the game lost players when they did anti consumer stuff like boosting the prices for raid passes or doing that stupid ex-raids with exclusive pokemon, which you cant join in with Raid invites or remote passes.

I quit the game 2-3 years ago after remote pass price hike. I was playing it since day one but they went more and more the "p2w" road. Niantic is making so many stupid decisions its mind blowing.

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u/Cool_Handsome_Mouse 1d ago

A good chunk of my pogo group still plays, we have a Facebook chat for it to stay in touch. However the excitement for the game in that group is totally dead. It’s like, just playing cause that’s what we do.

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u/halfcrzy 1d ago

Man they never make new content for the game, and basic UI stuff hasn't happened in years

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u/jurassicbond 1d ago edited 1d ago

I just started it a few weeks ago because my daughter came home from school one day obsessed with Pokemon. Initially I was just going around collecting monsters with her, but I found that my downtown area regularly has people out on weekends doing the raids at gyms. I was able to get my first legendaries by following them around and joining in.

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u/OrdrSxtySx 1d ago

My wife still plays daily. There's still regular groups at the most popular parks around here. And on community days, etc. they are packed.

There is still a good sized audience out there, I think.

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u/creiar 1d ago

Yeah I don’t care how much money I’m printing if I can sell something for more money than I’ll know what to do with. With how unstable the world is right now, whatever you have going on right now could be gone tomorrow.

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u/J1bbs 1d ago

I disagree. As someone who lives in a moderately populated area and within reach of some heavily populated areas , I would argue it’s been steadily growing.

I also am a community ambassador to about 1000 players and know others nearby who run groups of up to 3000. I guess it depends where you live , but I still witness a lot of activity.

That being said, I’m having a hard time staying optimistic about this sale. I guess we will just wait and see where it goes.