Pokémon Go won’t get obtrusive ads or sell location data after $3.5bn Scopely acquisition, product director confirms

“Scopely really recognises how unique this game is,” says Pokémon Go product director Michael Steranka, speaking with Polygon.

“They’ve told us themselves that they would be foolish to try to change the recipe of what’s made this such a huge hit and a success.”

Steranka spoke with the outlet to answer whether players should be worried about the future of Pokémon Go, and stated that they need not be concerned about intrusive ads or restrictions on playtime that would require payment to continue.

“We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that,” he assured.

The conversation followed recent confirmation that Scopely intends to acquire Niantic‘s licenced games and their associated teams in a $3.5 billion deal.

Niantic, meanwhile, will spin off into a tech company called Niantic Spatial.

Data privacy concerns 

Post-acquisition, some users worry that player location and movement data will be shared with another company, even across countries. After all, Niantic and Scopely are both based in the US but Scopely’s owner Savvy Games Group is based in Saudi Arabia.

On that front, Steranka said that Pokémon Go does not sell player data to third parties and that location data is only used to operate the game, stored on US-based servers and protected by strict regulatory practices.

He added: “So if there are any fears that this is going to other places that you may or may not know or may or may not trust, I hope that what I’m sharing today can help quell any of those fears, because that is absolutely not something that happens today and not something that will happen in the future.”

Moreover, Steranka said that the Pokémon Go team is staying on through the Scopely acquisition.

“Everybody’s coming along for the ride if they want to,” he said. 

“Of course, if someone doesn’t want to come along, nobody’s forcing anybody to come. And so that was something that was not only important to us, it is really important to Scopely as well.”

Lessons to learn

Steranka also noted the value of the acquisition to Scopely in the potential lessons Go might teach.

With the AR giant still reaching 20 million weekly active players nearly nine years after launch, Scopely is apparently interested in learning from the game and applying those lessons to other games in its portfolio – “and future games to come as well”.

Over the past decade, Pokémon Go has accounted for 95% of Niantic’s mobile games revenue, and earnings have been on the rise again for three consecutive years.