Scopely has announced the company’s first big change to Pokémon Go.
They made this announcement on their blog:
Pokemon GO’s leveling up journey is being rebalanced to add more to the experience! On Wednesday, October 15, 2025, Pokémon GO will release an update that increases the level cap from 50 to 80.
This update will make the leveling journey more fun and engaging by celebrating leveling milestones with new rewards, new cosmetics, and more.
And with this update, a number of players can expect to jump in level based on their total earned XP,. but don’t worry, no player will go down in level!
The Post-Niantic Pokémon Go Era Truly Begins
Pokémon Go launched in 2016, an augmented reality mobile game revolving around moving around the world to collect Pokémon. The idea came from Niantic, an AR company that originally started as a Google side project.
Jumping ahead to last March, Niantic sold Pokémon Go alongside Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now to Scopely. At the time, Scopely pledged to keep the original developer teams for these games intact.
Niantic itself continues to maintain their original AR game Ingress. But they have also shifted their business to AI. The company has spun off Niantic Spatial, which is building a new kind of AI model – large geospatial models.
Can We Trust Scopely To Do The Right Thing?
Scopely is a mobile game publisher based in Culver City California. Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games acquired Scopely in 2023, and this has created a lot of skepticism about the publisher. It’s worth noting that Scopely actually continues to be operated independently.
At the time of the March deal, Niantic assured fans that Scopely wasn’t going to suddenly add in-game ads to Pokémon Go. It’s now clear that the publisher wasn’t planning to make such drastic changes to the game.
Is This What Pokémon Go Needed?
Pokémon Go is about to turn a decade old next year. Like Fortnite and Minecraft, it’s amassed a massive player base in all these years. But we also visibly saw players leave and then return to play Pokémon Go through the years.
Niantic could not recapture the magic with other AR games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. They also seemed to struggle to keep Pokémon Go player engagement high after coming up with new ideas for years.
Niantic’s move seemed to be best for them, as their interests shifted towards AI. It may also prove to be what was best for Pokémon Go. We’ll see if Scopely is up to the task of bringing the game back to its former glories, or if it can find new peaks.
