If you were worried that Niantic selling Pokemon Go to Scopely would lead to everything Pokemon Going To Hell – and if MOP’s Andrew’s measured read on the situation didn’t calm you down – then the latest interview with director Michael Steranka over on Polygon will hopefully help settle some of those fears. Steranka is very clear about two of the big takeaways for fans, and one of the big ones is that Scopely is not going to add intrusive ads, time-gating mechanics, or any other sort of monetization-driven changes to how the game already works. Indeed, he reassures fans that nothing should change under the dev team, which is the same team as it always was, just under a different banner.
[Scopely] wanted to make sure that there was true continuity here and that the operational aspects of this game did not degrade as a part of this transaction. And so that’s really important to me. We have such an incredible team working on Pokémon Go, and I would not want to continue operating this game if it meant that I didn’t get to work with the same amazing people that I’ve been able to for years and years.
Steranka is also clear that the team working on the game now will be the same team that had been working on the game before, that the same commitment to live events will be moving into the future, and so on. In other words, people who are happy with the state of POGO will likely continue to be happy with it, rather than this being the moment when it all changes. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding, but this is at least a positive place to start.
