‘We Will Not Be Shutting Down the Game’ Pokemon GO Addresses Game’s Future Under Scopely

Summary
- Pokemon GO will not be shutting down under Scopely’s new ownership of, with more innovations to come.
- Scopely assures players of continued service and promises to maintain existing features.
- A recent meeting in Japan clarified Scopely’s commitment to Pokemon GO’s future and shared vision with Niantic.
Pokemon GO‘s leadership is quashing any potential rumors that it will be shutting down as original publisher and developer Niantic hands the reins over to Scopely. Rather, a recent meeting between the two companies included a message to players that Pokemon GO will function in generally the same way under its new ownership, but with more innovative features on the horizon.
Some fans were concerned to learn of Scopely’s purchase of Pokemon GO in March after more than eight years of the game being developed by Niantic. Senior product director Michael Steranka was quick to ease players’ minds at that time, praising Scopely’s success in the mobile game market and quelling concerns about the potential for intrusive advertisements and tracking data being sold to third parties. In an interview shortly after the acquisition announcement, he noted that Scopely does not sell user data, and that the new development team does not believe ads would ever be a good fit for Pokemon GO.

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A recent meeting between the two companies, held in Japan on April 9, aimed to provide players with a better understanding of what to expect from the mobile game in the future. As reported by Japanese website ITMedia Mobile, the message seems to break down into two parts. The first is that Scopely will continue to provide innovations in Pokemon GO that tie nicely into the Pokemon franchise, much like Niantic has introduced features like Max Pokemon and the GO Battle League since the game’s 2016 launch. The other half of that message is that most of the existing features will remain the same under the new leadership. This message seems to be a reiteration of game director Ed Wu’s comment from March that Pokemon GO will not remain the same, “because it has always been a work in progress.”
Pokemon GO Will Remain Relatively the Same Under Scopely
One point of interest specified at the meeting was a statement by a representative, who was not named in the original article, stating that Scopely would not be ending service for the game. The representative indicated Scopely sought out the purchase because of a shared vision with Niantic and Pokemon GO‘s popularity, market performance, and reputation among players.
The meeting was not held specifically to calm the potential fears of fans, but to promote the Japanese release of the GO Stamp Rally event. That event is not available in other regions, but players in the western world still have plenty of new things to do, including catching a new Gen 8 Pokemon in Pokemon GO and prepping for the upcoming Raid Day on April 13.

Pokémon GO

- Released
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July 6, 2016
- ESRB
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e
- Engine
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Unity
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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