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Pokemon Go players are having a pretty miserable day after it was announced that developer Niantic's gaming division is being sold to Saudi-backed publisher Scopely for $3.5 billion.
In case you missed it, Niantic and Scopely announced today that all of Niantic's current dev teams, as well as all of its games, including Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, will all soon fall under Scopely's umbrella. The sale has broad implications for the future of Pokemon Go, especially when you look at other games that have been acquired by Scopely like Marvel Strike Force, and players are already bracing for a new tier of microtransaction hell.
In one of the more dire predictions, Reddit user Lox22, who is a longtime Marvel Strike Force player, said this: "As someone who played Marvel Strike Force at launch, and then played it after being bought by scopely, I can say confidently they will make it pay to win and any new game breaking changes will take eons to be fixed if ever. This game is entering its death knell."
Pokemon Go chief Ed Wu and Scopely co-CEOs Javier Ferreira and Walter Driver offered comprehensive writeups aimed to ease players' concerns. Wu assured fans that Scopely has a "deep admiration" for Niantic and Pokemon Go and pointed out that the dev team isn't changing. "I won’t say that Pokémon GO will remain the same, because it has always been a work in progress," he said. "But how we create and evolve it will remain unchanged, and I hope that we can make the experience even better for all of you."
Scopely said its role will simply be "to empower the Niantic game team to pursue their ambitious roadmap by providing resources and support, all in service of giving players more of what they want from their favorite games."
Actions speak louder than words, however, and Scopely's actions in the past aren't giving players much reassurance. Specifically, some players are worried that Pokemon Go will start charging real-world currency to transfer their Pokemon over to Pokemon Home. Currently, doing so uses up GO Transporter Energy, which automatically replenishes over time and can be recharged using in-game currency. That said, with Pokemon Home being a distinct entity from Pokemon Go, and not one soon to be owned by Scopely, there's still hope this feature won't become paid.
Other players are expecting microtransactions to be embedded into more of the game.
"It was only a matter of time before it happened, I just hope it doesn’t have a major negative impact on the game, it definitely will not be the same though which is sad..without a doubt more micro transactions and tickets incoming," says FakeNianticEmployee.
"I always thought the app needed ads, higher costs to buy anything and cool downs to incubators," reads a comment from Zamazamenta.
Even the folks on the Marvel Strike Force subreddit are commiserating.
"I'm happily explaining to PoGo players how badly scopley treat their playerbase, including all the lies and gaslighting from the CMs and also the GM stating he couldn't care less about ftp or their experiences," reads a comment from Van-Eddy.
"Get ready to need stamina to throw pokeballs and ions or crystals or something to battle in gyms," reads a comment from AngryCobraChicken.
It's worth noting here that The Pokemon Company still owns the rights to the Pokemon IP, and it's notoriously protective of it. If Scopely were to try anything truly vile, it's likely The Pokemon Company will step in to stop them as they have the power to pull the IP entirely. It's still natural be somewhat worried about the future of the game, but there's also reason to feel comforted by The Pokemon Company's ever-watchful gaze.
