In 2016, Pokémon Go took the world by storm, setting new records for software downloads and dominating headlines in local news. Nine years later, and after the release of several less successful titles, Niantic Inc., the developer behind the game, is reportedly in talks to sell its games division to Scopely Inc., a company owned by Saudi Arabia. According to a Bloomberg report, the division could be valued at a staggering $3.5 billion. Niantic has yet to comment on the news.
The sale of Pokémon Go would mark another chapter in the career of one of the most unexpected CEOs in the gaming industry.
John Hanke, who co-founded Keyhole, a mapping technology company, in 2001, went on to play a significant role in shaping Google Earth and Google Maps after the company was acquired by Google. By 2010, Hanke, enjoying the success of his previous ventures, took the lead on a new project at Google aimed at exploring the future of augmented reality gaming.
This new initiative resulted in the release of Ingress in 2013, which became the first major augmented reality game to have a global impact, accumulating seven million players in just two years. Ingress, however, was more than just a game; it served as a test case for augmented reality technology. In 2015, Hanke spun off the Google team into an independent company named Niantic, and the following year, Niantic launched Pokémon Go, with significant backing from Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.
By the end of 2016, Pokémon Go had been downloaded over 500 million times, making it one of the most successful mobile games of all time.
In the years that followed, Hanke frequently discussed the vast potential of augmented reality in connecting the digital world with the real one. He envisioned a future where augmented reality could place users into shared virtual spaces, all while they navigated their physical surroundings—an idea that Niantic’s technology aimed to support.
However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and millions of players were forced to stay indoors. As the pandemic transitioned into an endemic phase, Niantic began to cut back on several of its projects. In 2023, the company laid off 230 employees, approximately 25% of its workforce, signaling a shift in focus. Hanke underscored the importance of continuing to prioritize Pokémon Go, acknowledging that the augmented reality market was growing at a slower pace than originally expected.
Now, it appears that Hanke and the remaining members of the Niantic team could be returning to their roots in mapping technology. The data generated by Niantic’s various apps has been used to build sophisticated geospatial models that aim to unlock the potential of spatial intelligence.In November 2024, Niantic’s Eric Brachmann and Victor Adrian Prisacariu provided an update on the company’s advancements: “At Niantic, we are at the forefront of creating a Large Geospatial Model. that leverages large-scale machine learning to comprehend a scene and link it to millions of other scenes worldwide.”
As the year 2025 unfolds, it seems clear that the future of Niantic’s work may lie in the convergence of artificial intelligence and geospatial technology.
