Samsung is reportedly going to collaborate with Pokemon Go developer Niantic on exclusive games for its Galaxy smartphones. Niantic apparently refused to collaborate with the Korean giant without a large investment. For this reason, Samsung is believed to have agreed to invest $40 million in Niantic. The two companies haven’t commented on this officially but the deal may be announced before the end of this year.
The Inquirer hears from a source that the deal will result in Niantic’s games being pre-loaded on Galaxy smartphones. The two companies are said to focus on an exclusive Harry Potter game which will let players use the Galaxy Note 9’s S Pen as a magic wand.
It’s unclear if this will be a separate version of the Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game that Niantic is already working on or a completely separate game for Galaxy smartphones. It’s also claimed that Ingress is part of this deal but not Pokemon Go. That’s apparently because Niantic is very protective of the Pokemon Go franchise and wants to keep it close to its chest.
Samsung might be banking on this partnership to further differentiate its smartphones from the competition. It recently tried to do this by teaming up with Epic Games for Fortnite’s launch on Android. There have also been whispers about Samsung working on a gaming smartphone. This partnership will be a good fit for that as well.