Investors are betting its popularity is a good sign for Nintendo’s nascent push into mobile gaming, a major U-turn for a company that long insisted on a consoles-only policy.
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Shares in First Baking Co, a bakery firm with annual sales of 25 billion yen, saw its shares rise 18 percent on Tuesday as the firm sells “Pokemon Bread” among other breads wrapped with character-decorated bags. As the whole idea has come out of Japan, Niantic Labs anticipated unmatched interest from Japan at least, which is why Pokemon Go is being launch after reaching more than two dozen markets spanning across the world.
Pokemon Go developer Niantic could reportedly place rare Pokemon in areas that people do not go.
The shares surged more than 14 percent to end at ￥31,770 (US$299.80), up by 120 percent from their July 6 close.
The fake Pokemon Go apps were found to be available to download under the names “Pokemon Go Ultimate”, “Go Catch ‘Em All” and “Pokémon Go: New Version for Free App Game!”. The free app uses Global Positioning System location search on smartphones as well as the graphics and camera features on devices to overlay cartoon monsters on real world settings, challenging players to capture the creatures and train them for fights. To put the numbers into perspective, Nintendo is now worth more than Sony, which has a market value of $40 billion.
Since Pokemon Go is said to really be hard on everyone’s smartphone batteries, this is where mophie comes in to save the day. Nintendo’s market capitalization has now doubled since the launch of the augmented reality game on July 6. Nintendo is now worth around nearly $43 billion. And if you grew up with the collectible card game – well, “Pokemon Go” gets the “collectible” part right, but the head-to-head competition is absent.
The release in Japan is also going to bring a couple of new things.
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The mobile game has become an instant hit just one week after launch.
