culture

Max Knoblauch3/12/25

Saudi-owned mobile company catches “Pokémon Go” for $3.5 billion

There continues to be huge money in making your phone hot as hell.

Niantic Labs, the games studio behind the massive mobile title “Pokémon Go,” has been acquired for $3.5 billion. The buyer: the Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely, a mobile games maker that produces “Monopoly Go.”

“Pokémon Go” has been a juggernaut in the phone games space, pulling in roughly $8 billion in revenue since its launch in 2016. In its statement about the deal, Scopely said “Pokémon Go” had more than 100 million unique users in 2024 and the Niantic portfolio more broadly drove over $1 billion in revenue last year.

Popular mobile games like “Pokémon Go” bring in hundreds of millions of dollars through (often shady) advertising. According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, 11 games surpassed $1 billion in revenue last year. Saudi Arabia’s interest in the game could also be partially tied to Niantic’s sizable trove of location data, built through players’ scans of real-world locations. With the acquisition, Niantic said it’s spinning off its geospatial AI business into a new company.

For the Saudi Arabian government, this is another significant foray into gaming — particularly mobile gaming. Through its Public Investment Fund, the country scooped Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023. It’s also established sizable stakes in gaming giants including Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive through the fund.

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Millennials may not have been the real job-hoppers after all

New BLS data shows late boomers had actually held more jobs by the same age.

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Could Madonna, Shakira, and BTS make the FIFA World Cup final more like the Super Bowl?

Just because it’s the biggest soccer game in the world doesn’t mean it can’t feel like football to Americans.

Madonna at the New York Giants v New England Patriots final

culture

Max Knoblauch5/14/26

Netflix is staffing up an apparent AI animation studio called INKubator

According to several public job listings, streaming giant Netflix appears to be building a GenAI animation studio called INKubator.

First reported by journalist Janko Roettgers in the Lowpass newsletter, INKubator seems to have launched in March and aims to “develop feature-quality content in a creator-led environment.”

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

culture

Saleah Blancaflor5/13/26

Netflix confirms a “KPop Demon Hunters” world concert tour is on the way

Netflix has a “Golden” mine and it's digging deeper.

At its fourth annual TV Upfront presentation on Wednesday, Netflix President of Advertising Amy Reinhard announced a partnership with AEG Presents to create a “KPop Demon Hunters” world tour that will bring the phenomenon to life.

In March, Bloomberg previously reported Netflix was planning a global world tour sometime next year ahead of the sequel in arenas that would hold 10,000 to 20,000 fans, though the news had not been confirmed by the company nor had a partner been in place at the time.

“KPop Demon Hunters” is Netflix’s most watched film of all time, racking up 481.6 million views globally during the second half of 2025. Since its release, the HUNTR/X trio of Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami has appeared and performed at several major events including late-night talk shows, award ceremonies, and most recently at Coachella, where they were a surprise guest for Katseye. It hasn’t been confirmed whether the trio will be on the tour.

The announcement of the tour comes after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos shared in a recent blog post that the company spent $135 billion on licensing and original film and TV over the last 10 years.

This year, Netflix has a projected content spend of $20 billion, up 10% year over year, while its annual revenue forecast is between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion. The streaming giant has brought in more than $46 billion in profit over the past decade.

Netflix said more details around cities and tickets for the concert tour are expected to come out later this year.

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