Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Sony recently announced that GSN Games, a division of its wholly-owned Game Show Network subsidiary, will be sold to Scopely, a California-based mobile gaming firm, for US$1 billion.
GSN Games is known for its free-to-play mobile and online game titles, including Solitaire TriPeaks, Bingo Bash, and Wheel of Fortune Slots.
Sony executives reportedly judged that GSN Games provided too few synergetic benefits to other Sony businesses to be worth holding on to.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, the unit directly concerned, expects to gain half of the purchase price in cash and the remaining half in Scopely shares.
The timeline for the transaction has yet to be decided, but afterwards Sony Pictures will become a minority shareholder in Scopely.
Launched in 2011, privately-held Scopely has published a number of successful gaming franchises. Its revenues tripled from 2018 to 2020, having closed out 2020 with more than US$900 million of sales.
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