Nintendo published a letter to investors on July 22nd offering a reality check on the company’s involvement in Pokemon Go : Namely, it didn’t develop or publish the game. Instead, Nintendo has a 32 percent stake in The Pokemon Company, the business that markets and licenses the Pokemon franchise to outside developers. The Pokemon Company will receive licensing fees and compensation for collaborating with developer Niantic on Pokemon Goand Nintendo will see just a sliver of that revenue. Nintendo said it would not modify its financial forecast. On Monday, the first trading day after its letter went public, Nintendo’s stock fell as much as 18 percent. It’s the steepest hit to the company’s shares sinceBloomberg reports. Many people associate Pokemon with Nintendo, and for good reason: The company has published the games since their inception in the s and it owns a third of The Pokemon Company. However, Nintendo simply didn’t have a hand in developing or publishing Pokemon Goas we noted in our previous reports on the company’s stock boosts.
The game is free to play ; it uses a freemium business model and supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items. It was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in , having been downloaded more than million times worldwide by the end of the year. It is credited with popularizing location-based and AR technology, promoting physical activity , and helping local businesses grow due to increased foot traffic. However, it attracted controversy for contributing to accidents and creating public nuisances. Various governments expressed concerns about security, and some countries regulate its use. After establishing a game account, players create and customize their own avatars. As players move within their real world surroundings, their avatars move within the game’s map. The maximum level a player can achieve is level Players earn experience points for various in-game activities. Players rise in level as they earn experience points XP , with various features being progressively unlocked. The more the player walks in real time, the more candy they can earn.
In June , Niantic announced that the game mechanics of Gyms would be revamped for a more teamwork-oriented experience; [19] Gyms were disabled on June 19, , with the new Gyms being released with the next app update a few days later. In July , Raid Battles were introduced. Raid difficulties range from 1 to 5, with 1 being of the lowest difficulty, and 5 being the most difficult to defeat. From September to November, the 3 Legendary Beasts: Entei , Raikou and Suicune , were released shortly after, rotating regions every month.
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Niantic specialises in augmented reality titles, and was originally founded as an internal startup within Google. How many games get a drink named after them at Starbucks? Accordingly, a spate of records were broken. Indeed, the revenue generated in that first month still puts it in fifth-place in terms of the highest one-month revenue for a free-to-play games. This was despite its launch being staggered, with its Japanese release not occurring until over two weeks following the general release. The success, however, was not unmarred by criticism and controversy. It has also been attributed as the cause for a spate of — sometimes fatal — accidents.
The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Gamefreak and Creatures will each receive 7. Each company gets He is like a good version of that videogames analyst that you always used to hear from a few years ago. So it’s certainly possible, depending on the percentage of Pokemon Go players playing on iPhones, that Apple could make more money from this craze than Nintendo will, although Nintendo also owns a stake in the Pokemon Company. Update newsletter preferences. Asif Khan. BI Prime Archive. Already have an account? Great article, thanks for the breakdown. Subscription offers. Nintendo’s previous resistance to mobile gaming was in part to protect its legacy console business, but the gaming company yielded in March , making a partnership with mobile firm DeNA to push into smartphone apps and games. Niantic could to the same. Please try again, the name must be unique Only letters and numbers accepted.
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The ‘Pokemon Go’ effect
Getty Now that it’s clear that Pokemon Go is a bit of a phenomenonthe question is which tech companies stand to win or lose from the millions of people running around cities catching cartoons.
Although Pokemon Go is mojey to play, like most mobile games, it offers in-app purchases, which have nkntendo started to rake in money. Here’s how David Gibson at Macquarie Research thinks the pie is split emphasis ours :.
So it’s certainly possible, depending on the percentage of Pokemon Go players playing on iPhones, that Apple could make more money from this craze than Nintendo will, although Nintendo also owns djd stake in the Pokemon Company.
Of course, the majority of Pokemon Go players, according to early estimates, are playing on Android, but it’s a free game, and it’s well established that iPhone users are far more willing to spend on in-app purchases. However, Google is also poised to not only profit from its Play Store app store platform, but also from its stake in Niantic, the game’s publisher.
Before Niantic spun off into an independent company, it was part of Google, and Monet recently invested in the gaming company. Mark Bergen at Recode writes :. Google could make some money.
Get the latest Google stock price. Nintenro icon An icon in the shape of a person’s head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Login Subscribe. My Account. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Kif Leswing. This story requires our BI Prime membership. BI Prime Archive.
Nintendo’s stock is on a Super Mario run. Shares of the Japanese gaming giant closed 4. InNintendo was struggling. The company was losing users to smartphone games.
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This prompted management to announce that it was launching dir mobile offerings. In the six months to September 30, Nintendo’s last official earnings announcements, mobile games raked in But Nintendo owns just a small stake in The Pokemon Company, which licenses its intellectual property to game developer Niantic. So the overall contribution of «Pokemon Go» to Nintendo’s earnings is limited. However, it played an important role in to bring interest back to the Japanese gaming brand.
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