Is the Pokémon Go frenzy over? Or is it about to get started?
If you look at Nintendo’s stock price, you might be a little worried or….excited…
Nintendo’s stock price managed to rally over 120% to a high of 31,770 Yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange just 13 days after the launch of smartphone game on July 6. The company’s market cap also reached $42 billion on Tuesday. However, since then, the stock has fallen some 11.9%, now trading at around 28,000 Yen.
So the question remains: Has Nintendo’s 15 seconds of fame come and gone? Or could this be a really good buying opportunity?
“Analysts say the best might be yet to come for ‘Pokémon Go’ because it still isn’t available in Japan, one of the biggest smartphone game markets by revenue and home to the 20-year-old Pokémon franchise,” the Wall Street Journal wrote last week.
The popular smartphone app was supposed to be available in Japan Wednesday but the launch was delayed, as TechCrunch reported.
“…the companies decided to cancel today’s launch entirely due to concerns that the hype generated would overload the game, our source explained. We don’t have an immediate update on when the game will finally go live in Japan, but understand that the launch is ‘imminent’ but unspecified,” they wrote.
Ahead of the supposed Japanese launch, government officials in the country were putting out warnings for upcoming Pokémon Go players. They even put out flyers with nine tips to follow. Check it out…
Another thing to watch during the Japanese launch...McDonalds.
The companies behind the popular new game – Nintendo, Niantic & the Pokémon Company – will get to see how a new source of revenue for the game will work. McDonald’s Japan has partnered with the game to become the first paying sponsor and turning its 3,000 locations in Japan into venues for players, or as TechCrunch explains it, into “’gyms’ where players can battle, adding a new source of revenue to the game beyond its already lucrative in-app purchases and potentially driving real-world traffic to McDonalds stores. That’ll be a partnership to watch since there are plans to offer sponsored locations in other parts of the world.”
McDonald's Holdings Co Japan Stock Price
Do you want fries with that?
The game’s popularity was unprecedented, reportedly passing 30 million downloads since its U.S. launch and $35 million in revenues.
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