- Niantic and Savvy Games Group have penned a new memorandum of understanding
- It indicates that Savvy will support them in their attempts to expand into the MENA market
- In layman’s terms, it could be laying the groundwork for a proper deal somewhere down the line
Savvy Games Group and Pokémon Go developers Niantic have penned a new memorandum of understanding. The document is intended to support Niantic in their attempt to expand into the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region; mainly into Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
Now, first off, what’s an MoU? Well, we need to tread carefully so we don’t get yelled at, but essentially, it’s usually a very basic, semi-formal agreement. It basically says, “We’re happy to go ahead with this if you are.” Right now, that means the door is open to more or less collaboration. In business terms, it’s more of a handshake than anything more, at least initially.
Right now the two have discussed things like community initiatives, support in opening new offices and recruiting local employees, and the like. But what’s notable is that Niantic, who seemed to be on the backfoot recently, is now powering ahead to once more take Pokémon Go further around the globe. Or are they?
More than this
Obviously, Niantic licence Pokémon, duh. But that does mean there’s potential that they could be pushing more of their own IP like Peridot, or even potentially developing their own game further down the line. As vague as this MoU is, it does present a lot of exciting possibilities for what we could expect in the near future, especially as Saudi Arabia continues to throw plenty of money at the games industry with events like the Esports World Cup.
But does that mean it’ll all work out as intended? Well, we’ll have to see just how this all develops.
In the meantime, if you want to find out what’s hot on mobile there’s no better place to start than by reading through our list of the best mobile games of 2024 (so far).
Better yet, the budget-conscious gamer can always dig into our other list of the top 25 best free-to-play games on iOS and Android!
