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Pokémon Go Fest boss reveals "one of the greatest" results of Scopely acquisition

One year after the Scopely sale, events for Go are looking bright.

The giant inflatable Pikachu at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen

Radio Times Gaming

Published: Friday, 19 June 2026 at 10:55 am

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Shortly before last year’s Europe Pokémon Go Fest in Paris, it was announced that developer Niantic was being bought out by a massive video game company, Scopely, to the eye-watering tune of $3.5 billion.

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Known for the other notable developers and games under its belt — like its own Monopoly Go, Digit Game Studios’ Star Trek Fleet Command, and FoxNext’s Marvel Strike Force — there was concern from the community at the time that Pokémon Go could be switched to prioritising heavy monetisation and losing some of its original magic.

That said, with the big sale of Niantic not being final until the end of May 2025, it wouldn’t be until over the course of the next year that we’d see how a Scopely-run Niantic would fare, both in the game itself and in the next round of Go Fests, which are regarded as the core of the community.

Players at the Rocket Hideout area at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen

Players at the Rocket Hideout area at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen. Radio Times Gaming

In Copenhagen last week, Radio Times Gaming was invited to Pokémon Go Fest 2026 to experience why it’s the ultimate gamer holiday, now more than ever.

Between building PokéBalls in the LEGO tent and catching more Shiny Mewtwos, I sat down in the main venue of Fælledparken with Lena Cillis – Niantic’s marketing manager for live events in the EMEA – who has been in said role since joining the company all the way back in 2021.

Essentially, if there was any live and in-person Pokémon Go event happening in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, she was the one who oversaw it all coming together.

With over five years of experience with Niantic to draw from, Cillis is the ideal person to ask how different things are a year after Scopely took them all on.

When asked how the day-to-day for Niantic has changed since the $3.5 billion sale, Cillis kept her cards close to her chest on many specifics, but she emphasised that the ‘beauty’ of the sale to Scopely is that the Pokémon Go team has been more empowered to do what it does best: cater to its communities.

Standing in the Cultivation Zone at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen

Standing in the Cultivation Zone at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen. Radio Times Gaming

Cillis explained: “I would say that the beauty of this acquisition was definitely that Scopely was so interested in our live events and the community.

“So, while it was always one of our core values and one of our core focuses, it has become even more of a focus, which is awesome, because we really get to showcase our communities even more, and highlight them even more, and make sure that they get to experience our live events – and yeah, really create these moments for them to come together and play together.”

She added: “That's one of the greatest things that came out of this acquisition: making sure that the focus is even more on the side of the community than it was even before.

“They've always been the heart and the core of Pokémon Go, but now we get to dedicate even more resources towards our community, which is beautiful.”

Even going off personal experience alone, that community was indeed catered to when it came to this year’s Pokémon Go Fest.

There was not only plenty to keep people engaged in Fælledparken’s huge park and garden as the main event venue – from laid-out zones for diverse gameplay, and unique raids made for over 2,000 players – but also improved city-focused gameplay.

By splitting the whole of Copenhagen into specific zones with their own Special Research missions and objectives to complete, you’re ultimately incentivised to explore the whole of each city Pokémon Go Fest takes you to and work with other members of the community who’ve all come over at the same time.

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More or less, you get rewarded for using the game as your travel guide — letting you soak up whatever lovely sights and bits of culture you encounter along the way, too.

Of course, accomplishing all of that each year is no small feat, with Cillis admitting that "every single year comes with a different challenge".

That’s especially since the European version of Go Fest is in a different country and city this year; Niantic has to coordinate not only with their own teams to make sure the location and venues are right, but also with "local communities in general, because they know their city the best".

As Cillis also put it: “We love to learn from them. We love to learn how they play the game, where they play the game, and where to go. So yeah, we definitely benefit from all of their knowledge and all of their local expertise.”

The entrance to the Conservatory Zone at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen

The entrance to the Conservatory Zone at Pokemon Go Fest 2026 in Copenhagen. Radio Times Gaming

You would normally think that with a whole other company like Scopely having a major stake in the setting up of Pokémon Go Fest for the first time, the process might get more complicated.

According to Cillis, it’s been the opposite. When asked more about the benefits Scopely has brought, whether the acquisition has unlocked the potential to solve issues that couldn’t have been solved otherwise, she added: “I think the team has always done a great job in terms of problem-solving and finding solutions that really cater to our core, to our trainers, and our community. I think it just helped us expedite processes and make sure that we're even more efficient in improving processes.”

Laying out that the Scopely acquisition has made Niantic’s live-event initiative for Pokémon Go more of a lean and mean machine, the evidence is certainly pointing in that direction when you look at how well Copenhagen’s Go Fest has done.

Before our sit-down, Cillis was telling me how the Go Fest Copenhagen had completely sold out in terms of tickets. At the end of the weekend, a press release on the event (shared by GoNintendo) confirmed just that – with all 60,000 tickets sold for the Fælledparken experience.

Not only was this the first time a Europe Go Fest has sold out, but also the first instance of all three events (Go Fest US and Japan) selling out, too.

Outside of the tickets, though, Go Fest 2026’s European leg saw nearly 614,000 players throughout Copenhagen across the weekend.

If such a productive and well-put-together event is the result of Scopely helping Niantic 'expedite processes', imagine next year when they’re really in their groove.

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Authors

Ben Williams

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