Pokemon GO Director Addresses Fan Concerns After Scopely Purchase

Summary

Pokemon GO director addresses fans’ concerns amid Scopely acquisition and confirms intrusive ads will never be included.
Niantic does not sell player data to third parties, ensuring strict protection practices.
The Pokemon Company fully supports Scopely’s acquisition, promising continued authenticity in the game.

On the heels of Scopely’s acquisition of Niantic’s games division, Pokemon GO’s senior product director Michael Steranka has addressed the fandom’s main concerns regarding the takeover and how that will impact the mobile game. Pokemon GO is an augmented reality game that was first released in 2026, allowing trainers to wander their real-life locations and catch, train, and battle virtual Pokemon along the way.

Scopely is an American video game developer and publisher, noted for being the second-biggest mobile games developer in the world. Scopely launched Monopoly GO in 2023, it went on to become the biggest mobile title of that year. The developer may also be familiar to some gamers as they worked on Pikmin Bloom, and Marvel Strike Force. The studio will now be helming Monster Hunter Now, which recently had a crossover with Monster Hunter Wilds to celebrate Capcom’s launch, and Pokemon GO fans are understandably nervous to see their beloved game being passed to new creatives.

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During an interview with Polygon, Steranka wanted to quell fans’ concerns after was announced at the beginning of March 2025 that Pokemon GO had been sold to Scopely. Steranka confirmed he did his due diligence on Scopely and determined that “they share so many of the same values that we’ve held near and dear.” Niantic also has every confidence in Scopely’s ability to “evolve the game in the way that we’ve always envisioned wanting to do.”

Addressing the main elephant in the room that’s concerning fans regarding talk of intrusive ads that will begin plaguing gameplay, Steranka nipped that rumor in the bud, saying “That is not happening in Pokémon Go — not now, not ever.” Steranka expanded, “We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that…that is not something that we feel would ever be right for Pokémon GO.”

Pokemon GO Director Weighs in on Fans’ Concerns Amid Scopely Acquisition

Pokemon GO fans expressed several concerns amid Scopely’s acquisition, including another worry regarding the exposure of players’ location and movement data to other organizations, which Steranka tackled head-on. “We do not sell player data to third parties, full stop,” …we follow all the incredibly strict regulatory best practices to protect that data as best as we can.” Furthermore, Steranka confirmed The Pokemon Company is “very supportive” of the Scopely acquisition, and assured the community that the organization will continue to be a valuable, hands-on partner to Scopely in a bid to create authentic Pokemon GO experiences.

While Niantic devs do their best to get trainers on board the acquisition, the developer is also dealing with a faux pas that occurred in the AR game recently. Niantic may be offering compensation to Pokemon GO players after a Catch Mastery event glitch significantly hindered players from catching a Shiny Omanyte or Shiny Kabuto. Trainers were understandably frustrated when Niantic’s promise of an increased shiny spawn rate never came to fruition, and it sadly added to the player base’s ongoing disdain for the game’s frequent bugs and crashes.