Pokemon Go ups Nintendo Co’s market value by $17 billion 

Tokyo: Tajiri Satoshi, the creator of the Pokémon Go, and Nintendo Co, the developer of mobile gaming app, have never imagined about the phenomenal success of the new app. The robust success of Pokemon GO and the surge in Nintendo Co’s market value by $17 billion in just over a week has been seized upon by one of its most vocal investors to press for a change of strategy at the company.

The new app game has revealed the power of smart phones. Technology experts see a whole change in gaming strategy. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata last year cautioned against hoping for too much change at the company. “The expansion into smartphone games was not because we have lost our enthusiasm or prospects for the console business,” Iwata said.
Nintendo Co is focusing on three main objectives. As part of this strategy, Nintendo is aiming at maximizing exposure of Nintendo’s intellectual properties to consumers, making profits on mobile devices and creating synergies with the console business.

Until Pokemon GO, a mobile game, was launched just over a week ago, Nintendo had taken every opportunity to say its main focus was still gaming consoles, and games for smartphones were just a means to lure more people to them. When Tajiri Satoshi first pitched the idea of Pokémon to Nintendo Co, the company could not quite grasp the concept, but was impressed enough with Tajiri’s game design reputation that they decided to explore the concept.

Until Pokemon GO, a mobile game, was launched just over a week ago, Nintendo had taken every opportunity to say its main focus was still gaming consoles, and games for smartphones were just a means to lure more people to them.

But the success of Pokemon GO – unforseen even by its creators – has shown the potential for augmented reality and for Nintendo to capitalise on a line-up of popular characters ranging from Zelda to Super Mario.

Seth Fischer, founder and chief investment officer at Oasis Management, is one of Asia’s best known hedge fund managers and has long been a small but loud shareholder. Encouraged by the success of mobile games like ‘Candy Crush,’ he has campaigned for years for the Japanese console maker to develop and sell games for platforms run by Apple and Google.

They further expect that Nintendo may focus on monetizing the rest of its 4,000 patents for mobile gaming, multi-player gaming, et cetera. It has revenue potential of ye 30billion to 60 billion ($290 million to $570 million) annually from licensing.