Saudi Investment Fund pays $3.5bn to capture Pokémon Go

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will pay $3.5bn (£2.7bn) to buy the gaming division of developer Niantic, whose titles include the hit mobile game Pokémon Go.

The game involves players walking around in the real world to hunt the collectable creatures, which appear on their phone screens using augmented reality.

Despite launching almost a decade ago, Pokémon Go is still amongst the highest-grossing mobile games in the world, with 30 million monthly players.

The deal marks the latest step by Saudi Arabia to develop its gaming industry, which it has spent billions of pounds on in recent years.

Niantic’s other games, such as Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom, are also included in the acquisition, along with the people employed to make them.

They will become part of Scopely Inc – which itself was bought by PIF subsidiary Savvy Games Group for $4.9bn in 2023.

Scopely is one of the biggest names in mobile gaming, with its most successful title, Monopoly Go, being downloaded more than 50 million times and generating more than $3bn in revenue.

Pokémon itself is jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures, which licensed the brand to Niantic so it could develop the game.

Ed Wu, who leads the Pokémon Go team at Niantic, said in a blog post he believed the move was “a positive step” for the game’s future.

“Pokémon Go is more than just a game to me, it’s my life’s work,” he said.

“I won’t say that Pokémon Go will remain the same, because it has always been a work in progress.

“But how we create and evolve it will remain unchanged, and I hope that we can make the experience even better.”

Saudi Arabia is becoming an increasingly powerful player in gaming.

Its PIF has stakes in some of the biggest publishers in the industry, such as Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive.

It has also made waves in the eSports industry, with Saudi Arabia hosting major tournaments including last year’s eSports World Cup, which had a prize pool of over $60m.

Riyadh will also host 2027’s planned Olympic eSports Games.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF has hundreds of billions in assets due to its oil wealth, which it has been investing heavily in sports such as golf, boxing and football, including a purchase of Newcastle United in a £300m deal in 2021.

It is controlled by the country’s prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose government has been accused of human rights violations.

A 2019 UN report stated that “the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible” for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was critical of the country’s government.

Saudi Arabia has always denied this.