Samsung is apparently teaming up with Niantic for an ‘exclusive’ games deal. They are reportedly ready to invest 40 million USD into Niantic in exchange for exclusive games.
According to the INQUIRER, the deal will be announced in the coming weeks. The deal seems to emulate what Samsung had done before with Epic Games last year. The partnership between the two companies resulted in Fortnite pre-installed in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.
Based on reports, the focus of the deal rests on an exclusive Harry Potter game. The game would utilize the Galaxy Note’s S-Pen stylus as a magic wand to emulate the wands in the Harry Potter franchise. Whether it will be a reworked version of the upcoming Harry Potter Wizards Unite or not still remains unknown. Furthermore, the deal apparently includes Ingress, Niantic’s first location-based game. However, the deal does not include Pokemon GO due to possibly Niantic being too overprotective over it.
If this deal does occur, Samsung seems to point the focus of their upcoming Galaxy Note 10 to gaming. Although exclusive games are more prevalent for consoles and PC gaming, it is not a common sight in mobile gaming. This move seems to be Samsung taking a bold step into securing exclusivity on mobile gaming.
An important note is that these are currently rumors and not set in stone. Please take the information with a grain of salt until full confirmation is available.
Source: The INQUIRER