Initially, it was a rumour, but this just happened a few hours ago. Niantic, the developer behind the highly successful Pokemon GO app, has sold the game and others to a Saudi Arabian group (Scopely) for US$$3.5 billion.
As announced by Ed Wu, he believes a partnership with Scopely "will be a positive step" for every Pokemon GO player and the game's future. Scopely's role in acquiring Pokemon GO will be to support the team by providing resources. That also means the current Pokemon GO team will continue working. Besides Pokemon GO, Scopely will also have access to other Niantic-made games such as Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now.
For the uninitiated, Scopely is a private company in Saudi Arabia full of game-makers — artists, engineers, designers, writers, community managers, and more — working around the world with games like Monopoly Go, Star Trek: Fleet Command, Marvel Strike Force, WWE Champions and many more. You can read more about them in its official blog post here.
Ed Wu also remarked that it's tough to say if Pokemon GO (and perhaps the other two mobile games) will remain the same. But at the same time, he also said mobile games like this have always been a work in progress. So Pokemon GO players, you can still play the same way until further notice.
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