Today, 6th July 2026, the Niantic games team officially updates its name to Scopely Explore. As part of the rebrand they intend to debut a new look. They have shared that the Pokémon GO team remains the same, as does their commitment to creating the best gameplay experiences for Trainers everywhere.
It has been more than a year since Scopely first acquired the gaming side of Niantic, with the announcement coming on 25th March 2025. The acquisition included “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now”, among other apps and live experiences. Scopely celebrated the first anniversary of this acquisition by releasing a mini-documentary in May 2026.
Who Are Scopely Inc?
Scopely Inc. is owned by Savvy Games Group, which is owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
Scopely Inc. is one of a few companies which coexist within the Savvy Games Group. It was founded in 2011, and it has around 2000 employees across the globe. Scopely was bought by the Savvy Games Group for $4.9 billion US dollars in 2023, with the aim to accelerate Scopely’s growth and achievement of strategic objectives.
Savvy Games has been established in 2021 in Saudi Arabia, with a mission to “drive the long-term growth and development of esports and the broader games industry worldwide”. In other words, Savvy Games is the Saudi’s investment into video games, focused on purchasing prolific money making studios around the world.
Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of US$930 billion. It was created in 1971. and it has been investing in different assets over the past 50 years.
Upon the acquisition, Niantic span off its technology platform into a new standalone entity, Niantic Spatial Inc. Led by John Hanke, Niantic Spatial will be a geospatial AI company powered by a next generation map, enabling devices and machines to understand and interact with the physical world. Niantic Spatial and aimed to continue to own and operate AR games “Ingress Prime” and “Peridot.” Read more on the Niantic blog here.
Since the change to Niantic Spatial, the Peridot mobile app has announced that it will sunset, with the app removed from the App Store and Google Play on May 14, 2026, and the servers officially closing on August 31, 2026. It is worth noting, that while the mobile game is winding down, Peridot is not. The mobile game has not been the only way to be a part of Peridot, with Hello, Dot allowing you to interact with Dots via VR headsets. Peridot Beyond and Project Jade both took the adventure outdoors, into the world, by your side.
Peridot Beyond brought Peridot to Snap’s AR glasses, the Spectacles, using the AI technology of Project Jade.
