Welcome to Scopely Explore

It is known that since last year, Pokémon Go and a few other games under the Niantic Games banner were put up for sale, and the buyer is Scopely, a games company with a somewhat different history of its own. The games then entered a transition period with the new "suitor", and now the "apex" of that transition period is at hand with the games finally shedding their former Niantic (Games) branding for one under the Scopely name. This post serves to discuss that new branding, and in particular to how it applies for Pokémon Go.

The new branding is called Scopely Explore, which is certainly a nod to how its games make people go out in the real world; it also harmoniously agrees with the Niantic Spatial branding in cadence for games that didn't go to Scopely (as Ingress). Now, Scopely has a "folded S" logo; this also becomes reflected in the Explore branding, where the letter X becomes (or more appropriately, resembles) a folded paper crane. The spirit of the branding then appears to be quite appropriately placed, especially with Pokémon (Go) as a concern.

Speaking of which, the Pokémon Go web site has replaced mentions of Niantic Games on its web site with Scopely Explore, particularly on its Community page that I highlighted along with the standards for its leaders. The game too has replaced the old Niantic logo on its splash screen with the Scopely Explore logo, but this has been made smaller to make way for the game's 10th anniversary logo... which also marks the first time ever that the game's logo is present on that very screen, something that never happened with Niantic.

Even with this change, the Pokémon Go team - as well as their objectives of delivering a great experience - are to stay the same, at least as elucidated by the transition news update. Still, it cannot be doubted that a lot of changes and happenings have occurred within that time, many great and others not so great in terms of both execution and perception. The challenge for the team now, and based on what has transpired, is to prove that the above can happen even with them being "under new management" - yet again, as I had mentioned.

Now, that new management has fully revealed its guise, perhaps with somewhat appropriate timing, given that this is a big anniversary year for both Pokémon in general and Pokémon Go itself. With the core idea ("explore") embedded in the title of that new management entity, it is hoped that they won't stray too far off that idea; yet in some ways, "stray" is indeed what some explorers (and Pokémon Trainers) may need to do to achieve some of their objectives, and  Scopely Explore will have to weigh that in for the good of Pokémon Go.

One year ago: Common Event Types in TCGP

Two years ago: The Pokémon Go Fest Experience... with Ash in Tow

Three years ago: The (Master) Magnet Man

Four years ago: My Nintendo Rewards - Pokémon Wallpapers

Five years ago: Professor Willow Goes to the TCG

Six years ago: More on Remote Raids

Seven years ago: The Switch Lite

Eight years ago: Mew @ Everywhere

Nine years ago: What Kind of Pokémon Are You?