Niantic has sold its third-party games division, including Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, to Scopely for $3.5 billion, raising concerns over user location data.

Pokémon Go depends on real-time location tracking for gameplay and ads, and with Scopely being Saudi Arabian-owned, privacy concerns are growing over how this data will be handled.

Meanwhile, Niantic is launching Niantic Spatial, a geospatial AI company that will use past location data to build large-scale geospatial models, highlighting the value of user data.

Scopely’s history of aggressive monetization, seen in Monopoly GO, has sparked fears of paywall-heavy changes in Pokémon Go and other games.

#PokémonGo #Niantic #Scopely #GamingNews #PrivacyConcerns #Monetization #MobileGames #AI #TechNews #GamingIndustry $BTC $ETH $SOL