Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm.
World-famous Pokémon GO studio Niantic is now Scopely Explore
By Paul McNally
Scopely has announced a new name for the former Niantic games team behind Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, with the group now operating as Scopely Explore.
The move follows Scopely’s $3.5 billion acquisition of Niantic’s games business, which closed in May 2025 and brought several of the company’s biggest location-based games into Scopely’s portfolio. Alongside Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, the deal also included companion apps and services including Campfire and Wayfarer.
In a new blog post, Scopely said the name is intended to reflect the “mission” that has long guided the team, with exploration sitting at the centre of its games and the communities that play them. The company described Scopely Explore as a team focused on experiences that encourage players to discover new places, connect with others, and experience the world in different ways.
Importantly, Scopely stressed that Scopely Explore is not a separate company or subsidiary. Instead, it is a named internal team within Scopely, with its games and products still developed and published by Scopely.
The Niantic name has carried a lot of weight in the mobile games space since Pokémon GO became a global phenomenon in 2016. For many players, Niantic has been almost inseparable from the idea of walking around real-world locations to play games, whether that meant hunting Pokémon, planting flowers with Pikmin, or taking down monsters in Monster Hunter Now. In recent times however the brand has been tarnished with a connection and accusations that Pokemon’s Go’s user-supplied data had been used to train military drones by Niantic Spatial – Niantic’s former sister company. Even though the truth was not as simple as that, the name change will remove some of any remaining confusion there.
The rebrand also appears to be the next formal step in folding those teams into Scopely, rather than a sign of any major change to the games themselves. Scopely said the team will continue building experiences that “inspire people to get outside, connect with one another, and explore the world together” as part of the wider company.
Players should expect to see the Niantic name begin changing across platforms over the coming weeks, with Scopely Explore gradually replacing it.
For Pokémon GO players in particular, the announcement is another reminder that the game’s post-Niantic era is now properly underway. The game has already been under Scopely’s ownership for more than a year, but the name change makes that shift much more visible.
Whether it changes much at player level remains to be seen. For now, Scopely is positioning this as a branding move rather than a reset, and the message is very much that the same outdoor, social, location-based DNA will continue under a new banner.
Still, when one of mobile gaming’s most recognisable studio names starts disappearing from the apps it helped define it does feel like the wind is changing.
