Inside the Deal: Scopely leaders reflect on the Niantic games acquisition one year in

In May 2025, Scopely acquired the Niantic games business, which welcomed Niantic’s game teams, beloved games Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now, and companion apps and services Campfire and Wayfarer to Scopely’s diverse video game portfolio, highlighting the company’s ongoing commitment to community-driven, social experiences.

As the one-year anniversary of the transaction nears, the acquisition took center stage at the Entertainment Software Association's Interactive Innovation Conference (iicon) 2026 in Las Vegas last week.

Scopely Chief Revenue Officer and Board Member Tim O’Brien and President, Games Ed Wu sat down with Goldman Sachs’ Hemal Thaker in a talk titled “After The Deal: Doing M&A Right In A Creative Industry.”

The group unpacked what it takes to execute transformative M&A, touching on the strategy behind the deal, its complexity, Scopely’s approach to unification and the results.

What emerged from the discussion was a story about shared vision, thoughtfulness, empowerment and the importance of playing the long game.

About the session: Video game M&A has accelerated dramatically in recent years, reshaping the competitive landscape and concentrating capital across studios, platforms, and global markets. But closing a deal is only the beginning. The real challenge is what comes next. Scopely and Goldman Sachs explored what distinguishes successful acquisitions in the video games industry at the inaugural iicon event. Using the unification of Niantic’s games business into Scopely as a case lens, leaders examined how companies can preserve creative autonomy, align cultures, empower leadership teams post-close, and scale global franchises without compromising the core attributes that underpinned their value. The conversation focused on talent retention, product continuity, live-service sustainability, and long-term value creation. As consolidation continues across interactive entertainment, the session offered an inside look at how thoughtful unification strategies can unlock growth while protecting innovation.

The Scopely journey

O’Brien kicked off the discussion by sharing how Scopely has grown into a global mobile games leader, surpassing $15 billion in lifetime revenue as the company celebrated its 15th anniversary this year.

Its strategy has centered on empowering gamemakers to do their best, most creative work by leveraging a robust technology platform, a unique internal “operating system” and publishing infrastructure, live ops expertise and a “learning machine” mindset. He credits Scopely’s success on the team’s ability to create and constantly evolve games that are community-driven and built for the long-term, so players can enjoy them for decades.

Scopely's Tim O'Brien

In terms of M&A, Scopely has a long tenure of acquiring world-class teams and products with dozens of strategic investments and nearly a dozen completed acquisitions over the last decade.

An inflection point came in 2023 when Scopely was acquired by Savvy Games Group. The deal unlocked additional capital, enabling Scopely to pursue larger-scale transactions — including the partnership with the Niantic games business last year.

The Niantic and Pokémon GO journey

Thaker took it back to the beginning, reminding the audience that Wu has been with the Niantic games team since the beginning at Google, before the launch of Pokémon GO, and asked for a glimpse into the early days and how the game came to be.

Goldman Sachs' Hemal Thaker

The game began as an April Fool’s joke at Google, Wu shared, before spinning out from the company and becoming Niantic in 2015. In just 10 months, the team built and launched the game globally, quickly turning it into a phenomenon with over 500 million players. Its success came from blending strong engineering with a universal appeal of exploration. Wu shared some of the intense early days of scaling the game, and nearly a decade later, with more than one trillion Pokémon caught, he also reflected with gratitude for the players and the team.

While we were hopeful that the game would be a hit, we could not have anticipated the cultural phenomenon it ended up becoming,” Wu said, “And it's remained a worldwide sensation since.”

Scopely's Ed Wu

Why Scopely wanted to team with Niantic games

As Scopely shared last year, the appeal of the Niantic games business went far beyond metrics.

Read more here: Why Scopely is teaming up with Niantic games

O’Brien described a multi-year journey that began with a simple dinner in 2023 and evolved into deep conviction in the Niantic games team, products and communities. What stood out wasn’t just the scale and potential, but the mission-driven culture of the organization.

“From our first meeting, it was clear the Niantic games team had a deep passion for their products and community — it truly feels like their life’s work,” O’Brien said. “I look at a lot of companies, and you rarely see that type of commitment and passion.”

That feeling was mutual.

Wu explained Niantic was looking for a partner who understood games are more than products — they’re living relationships between developers and communities. Scopely’s community-first approach and disciplined investment strategy made it the right fit.

“We share a deep value and appreciation for the fact that games are not just a codebase or a set of users,” Wu said. “They're actually a deep relationship between the team that creates the game and the community that surrounds it. And Scopely’s community-centric approach to all of their games helped us recognize that they also understood this relationship.”

The deal process and unification strategy

O’Brien then shifted to key elements that enabled the teams to navigate the deal process.

The transaction was anything but straightforward. Niantic’s games business existed within a broader technology organization and separating its components required deep collaboration, problem-solving and trust on both sides.

It was also imperative to be thoughtful of not just the to-be-acquired company but its partners and players. Scopely took the guidance of Ed and his team on how to approach all key stakeholders and ultimately let them lead.

“When you’re working with global partners like The Pokémon Company, Nintendo, and Capcom — and hyper-engaged global communities of millions of people — you have to be extremely thoughtful. We focused, and continue to focus, on listening and building in partnership,” O’Brien said.

In terms of the teams, rather than imposing integration, Scopely aimed to unify the two organizations. Having acquired nearly a dozen teams and products, Scopely understands that unifying acquired teams to co-create a path forward and learn from each other is key. That means the focus was clear after the deal closed: enhance and empower teams, sharing insights on both sides to enable smarter decision-making.

One year in, how is it going?

In the last 12 months, the business has delivered double-digit year-over-year growth in games like Monster Hunter Now, engagement in Pokémon GO is up 10%, and Pikmin Bloom is the No. 1 game on the App Store and Google Play in multiple markets in Asia. Equally important, real-world engagement has also accelerated with more players participating in live events and community experiences, as shown by Campfire participation being up 85% and Wayfarer daily active users (DAU) up more than 20%.

“One plus one equals three,” as Thaker put it.

Most importantly, cultural unification and employee sentiment is strong. Both companies have retained their identities while learning from each other — whether through live-event expertise or small traditions like Niantic’s in-office cookie cart, which has caught on across Scopely’s hubs.

“Scopely has encouraged and enabled us to be who we are," Wu said, “while also giving us the infrastructure and rigor of thought process on how to scale a sustainable business that can thrive and grow for the next decade.”

“M&A is not easy," O'Brien added. “There are times where deals don’t go well. This one has gone exceptionally well, and we’re proud to have the Niantic games team as partners.”

Playing the long game

In the end, Scopely is focused on building experiences, and partnerships, that can thrive for years to come.

“We take a very long-term view with M&A,” O’Brien shared. “Ultimately we want to support teams with the resources and freedom to do their best, most creative work. The success of each acquisition leads to other successes for Scopely, which is why we’re committed to always bringing more world-class teams and products into our ecosystem.”

Scopely is built around a simple belief that “life is better when we play together.” By welcoming more world-class teams like Niantic games to Scopely and empowering them to go after their ambitious roadmaps, Scopely can continue to help unlock that spirit of play in millions of people around the world and inspire people to explore the world together.