The recent augmented-reality extravaganza Pokémon Go has been a runaway success; so much so that Nintendo shares have seen a 10% bump directly after the game’s release.
Reuters has the game sending Nintendo’s shares up 10% almost overnight, with total market value of around $23 billion right now. This is the highest the company has been in around two months. Not too shabby for a game that Nintendo were relatively hands-off with. The Pokémon Company developed the game in coordination with Niantic – a small developer based in San Francisco that worked on AR apps like Field Trip and then AR games like Ingress and Endgame.
Pokémon Go launched for free yesterday in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. It includes the use of Micro-transactions to compliment the training and catching of new Pokémon with new items and XP. The report on Reuters stated, “It has more (monetisation) than we expected; as users build their Pokémon inventory, spending money becomes needed to store, train, hatch and battle.” The game is also typical of Nintendo’s approach: their constant handle on innovation and non-traditional games has given rise to massive success, and it’s games like Pokémon Go that help to cement the company’s reputation as such, even if they have away from the ‘core’ gamer in recent years.
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