Cellular gaming big Scopely has made a “strategic funding” into Studio Auknow, a brand new firm shaped by the previous director of Umamusame: Fairly Derby.
Introduced through a press launch from Scopely, this transfer has been made as a part of the corporate’s continued “long-term funding within the Japanese market”. This comes comparatively quickly after Scopely purchased up Niantic for $3.5bn in 2025.
Studio AuKnow is residence to an expansion of skilled cellular sport builders, in accordance with this launch. Founder Takuma Akitsu was the director of award-winning Umamusame: Fairly Derby, engaged on the sport up till 2024 as the sport surged into reputation. Nonetheless, different workers current have expertise on Pokémon Pocket, Onmyoji, Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth, Sonic World Journey. Studio AuKnow is at present engaged on a brand new cellular IP, and is at present recruiting for quite a lot of roles.
Scopely is owned by the Savvy Video games Group, a Saudi Arabian state-owned funding firm which has made comparable monetary gamers within the video games business over time. This explicit funding is a part of a wider push by Saudi Arabia Scopely to spend money on the cellular gaming sphere, which needs to be little shock contemplating the surge in cellular gaming’s reputation within the MENA area.
Saudi Arabian funding efforts have been criticized by many humanitarian teams as a result of nation’s poor human rights document, with its fiscal outreach into quite a lot of industries – video video games contains – described as an effort to scrub its popularity for world tourism and funding.
