Nintendo is worth $9 billion more today than it was on Thursday on the eyepopping success of Pokemon Go, an augmented reality version of the game introduced in 1995.
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The game, jointly produced by game developer Niantic and Pokemon Company, was launched in the United States last week, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The stock jumped 9 percent on Friday after Pokemon GO shot to the top of free app rankings in Apple Inc’s USA iTunes store.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was 3% higher at 15,565.38 in Monday morning trade. It is expected to give a boost to Nintendo’s mobile gaming business. The app is free for smartphones.
Investors have been asking for Nintendo to go mobile each and every day in the past few years, and when the Japanese platform holder finally did it the outcome was fantastic.
Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management, said that amid a shrinking home video game market, Nintendo’s smartphone games are highly valued by both domestic and foreign institutional investors as a stable revenue source.
Pokemon Go enables mobile users to look for and catch the game’s characters in real life local settings.
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The game is freely available for download on the App Store and on Google Play, but it supports in-app purchases or micro-transactions. The company has said it plans to launch four more smartphone games by the end of March 2017.
