Behind the $3.5 billion Pokemon deal lies a consolidation strategy
Scopely's $3.5 billion purchase of the hit game Pokemon Go this month is part of larger strategy to build a business through acquisitions as the video-game industry overall struggles.
Scopley's goal, according to Co-CEO Javier Ferreira, is to have a portfolio of successful titles that can support each other in an $178 billion industry that was essentially flat last year. While mobile games like Pokemon Go are at the core of Scopely's business, the company is developing or considering acquiring PC and console titles. Ferreira said massively multiplayer online role-playing games are "interesting,' although he declined to say if the company was making one.
"There's consolidation happening in the marketplace,'' Ferreira said in an interview from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week. "What's driving it is that it's become increasingly difficult to achieve growth and success.'
On Tuesday, game maker CD Projekt said it was working with Scopley on a game tied to one of its properties.
Scopley can afford to spend on acquisitions because it has a wealthy backer. Savvy Games Group, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, bought Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023, tapping a pool of $38 billion the kingdom has allocated for video-game investments. The same month that deal was announced, Scopely released Monopoly Go! The mobile version of the famous board game reached $1 billion in revenue faster than any other, and surpassed $3 billion in a little more than a year, according to data from researcher Sensor Tower.
Scopely has spent more than $1 billion marketing Monopoly Go!, according to Ferreira. Last month, it was downloaded about 3 million times, according to Sensor Tower. Scopley's headcount of 2,400 employee will increase, Ferreira said. That's a sharp contrast to an industry that has seen thousands of layoffs in the past year.
Scopely is taking a relatively hands off approach with Pokemon Go. The game's former owner, Niantic, had a spotty hit rate with its new titles, canceling games attached to properties as popular as Harry Potter. Aside from the three titles the Niantic unit currently runs, "there are no plans to develop any new games,' Ferreira said.
Scopely looked at "hundreds' of potential deals last year, Brian Ward, Savvy's CEO, said in a separate interview at the event. His goal for 2024 was for Scopely to "find one thing, one genre-leading title or team capable of making one.' Mission accomplished with Pokemon Go, but more deals are likely to come.
"Although we're not in a race to deploy capital, I don't think we can sit back and watch and see what happens,' Ward said.
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SoraNews24
3 days ago
- SoraNews24
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan's National Police Agency says
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Japan Today
20-05-2025
- Japan Today
New Okinawa theme park aims to tap tourism boom, become springboard to Asian markets
Tsuyoshi Morioka, CEO of marketing and entertainment firm Katana Inc, speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Tokyo on May 16. By Rocky Swift and Kentaro Okasaka The company behind a new nature adventure park on Japan's southern island of Okinawa is hoping the country's huge tourism boom will get it off to a raring start, and that with time propel the startup further into Asia and other markets. Junglia, a 60-hectare site built on an old golf course and featuring more than 20 attractions from a hot air balloon ride and buggy riding to treetop walking and a "Dinosaur Safari", is set to open on July 25. Costing some 70 billion yen, the park is the brainchild of Tsuyoshi Morioka, chief executive of entertainment firm Katana. Morioka, a theme park veteran, who is credited with turning around flagging attendance at Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka, by bringing in Harry Potter-themed attractions. Japan is experiencing an unprecedented boom in tourism, fueled by a weaker yen, with overseas visitors climbing 47% to a record 36.9 million last year. Their spending shot up 53% to 8.1 trillion yen, making tourism - which counts as an export in GDP data - the country's second biggest export sector after cars. The Japanese also love a good theme park with Tokyo's Disney resorts having enduring success and USJ, despite some early financial woes, proving popular. That said, many parks have also failed. Yu Shioji, the chairman of the Amusement Park Society of Japan, believes Junglia will have "almost no chance" of long-term success given that there are other nature adventure parks in Japan and its relatively high cost - 6,930 yen per day pass for locals and 8,800 yen for international visitors. While acknowledging long odds for long-term profitability for any amusement park, Morioka - who considers himself a maths nerd - said that by his calculations, Junglia has more than a 70% chance of success. He expects several thousand visitors a day to Junglia and says it can be profitable even if it only garners half the number of visitors of the nearby Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, which has around 3 million per year. Morioka added that demand for theme parks and higher value-added tourism services in Japan is here to stay, given that many Asian countries are growing wealthier. "The weak yen is a tailwind, but the number of people who want to visit Japan will increase structurally regardless of the currency effect," he said. The Japanese government has said it wants to boost the number of overseas visitors to 60 million per year by 2030. If Junglia is successful, Morioka says developing smaller attractions that cost less than 100 billion yen, unlike mega theme parks like Disney's and USJ, could be easily replicated in other Asian markets like Taiwan and Indonesia. Listing Katana would be an option to fund future growth, he said, adding that he saw a lot of potential for theme parks built around Japanese anime if he can convince content creators to license their intellectual property. "I think it would be good if there was a third option in cities around the globe after Disney and Universal," said Morioka. "I want to develop niches where they can't go and create a third force in attractions in the world that originates from Japan." © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Times
18-04-2025
- Japan Times
Calling all Potterheads: ‘The Goblet of Fire' comes to Tokyo
'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' turns 20 this year (yes, millennials, we're that old), and to celebrate with a good dose of nostalgia, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo is staging its first-ever special exhibition based on the movie from April 18 through Sept. 8. Following a successful run at the sister Studio Tour in London, the Tokyo event located a few steps from Toshimaen Station starts with the Great Hall of Hogwarts, where a familiar sight beckons: the Goblet of Fire, blue flames turning red and spewing pieces of parchment with the names of chosen champions. There's the age line drawn by school headmaster Dumbledore to prevent underage students from entering the Triwizard Tournament, and dummies of the mischievous Weasley twins, white-haired and sprawled on the floor after having tried to fool the barrier with an aging potion. 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There are a myriad of interactive activities: Insert yourself into one of the school's animated paintings as a moving staircase pivots overhead; join spectators in the first movie's quidditch match and see your reaction shots seamlessly edited together into the actual scenes; or attend a Defense Against the Dark Arts class and fend off a dastardly Death Eater. You can also fly around film locations on a broomstick, but should you want the photos and video of your flight, that'd be 5,000 galleons — I mean, yen. All of the texts and videos accompanying the exhibition items have English translations, but explanations and activity instructions from staff (friendly and expressive though they are) are given in Japanese. The "Goblet of Fire" exhibition turns Hogwarts Castle into a projection mapping backdrop to portray scenes from the same movie. | GENDEL GENTO The tour is especially successful in making visitors feel like they're stepping into the locations and even specific scenes from the series. Take the Ministry of Magic set, which is exclusive to the Tokyo exhibition. As you walk into the imposing atrium as Harry did in the fifth movie (the film's soundtrack playing in the background), it's hard not to be transported into that very scene. The centerpiece of this area is what stays seared into your brain: the Magic Is Might monument, with its mass of nonmagical 'muggles' being crushed under the weight of Voldemort's magical fascism, carved with unsettling detail. Such large-scale sets abound. There's Platform 93⁄4, where you can board the Hogwarts Express after taking the obligatory photo pushing a luggage cart through a brick wall. Then wander the Forbidden Forest and meet Aragog and his spider children, or take a stroll along Diagon Alley and peek into iconic shops like Ollivander's. In all, it takes 3 to 4 hours to go through everything the expanded exhibit has to offer, and if you feel like snacking after all this walking around, popular classics include Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (they do mean every flavor, so beware the ear wax ones!); chocolate frogs (look inside the package for a collectible card featuring a famous character); and butterbeer, the non-alcoholic refreshment of choice of the budding witch or wizard. If you prefer something more filling, new limited-time meals include two premium burgers based on Hogwarts' rival schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, with Instagrammable blue and red buns, respectively. With food offerings ranging from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 per item, the victuals at the exhibition aren't cheap. | WARNER BROS. STUDIO TOUR TOKYO — THE MAKING OF HARRY POTTER When you're done, the exit takes you through the largest Harry Potter store in the world, selling every imaginable merch you might desire. It'll cost you, though: Get your very own Hogwarts robes for ¥13,000, which you can personalize at no extra cost. Add the magic wand of your favorite character for about ¥4,500. Aforementioned snacks and meals are around ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 a pop. Admission alone is ¥7,000 for adults, but ¥5,000 evening tickets are available until June. All in all, there's much to like about the tour, except maybe the assault on your wallet. The abundance of activities ensures that even those who are not hardcore Harry Potter fans can enjoy themselves. And the grand scale and attention to detail is likely to impress — just make sure to withdraw some galleons at Gringotts before coming.
