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Nintendo's Shares Double Since Pokémon Go's Launch, Company Doesn't Change Financial Forecast
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Reuters news service reported on Tuesday that, as of Tuesday, Nintendo Co, Ltd.'s shares in the Japanese market have doubled since the launch of the Pokémon Go game in the United States on July 6, with a current market capitalization of 4.5 trillion yen (US$42.5 billion).
Nintendo had the biggest daily turnover in Japanese stock market history this century on July 15 when it traded 476 billion yen (US$4.5 billion) worth of shares.
However, Nintendo stated in a report on Friday that "income reflected on [its] consolidated business results is limited." While Nintendo did not directly develop the Pokémon Go game, the company, alongside Google and The Pokémon Company, invested a total of US$20 million in the game's developer Niantic Labs. Nintendo also owns 32% of The Pokémon Company, and it is the only publicly traded company in The Pokémon Company joint company, with the other two companies GAME FREAK and Creatures being privately held. Nintendo said after "taking the current situation into consideration," it isn't "modifying [its] consolidated financial forecast for now."
Nintendo is producing and will release the "Pokémon GO Plus" peripheral device, which is scheduled for release near the end of July. The company said that it has already taken the Pokémon GO app release and the "Pokémon GO Plus" release into account when it made its financial forecasts in April regarding the financial year that will end on March 31, 2017. At that time, Nintendo said it expects net sales of 500 billion yen (about US$4.7 billion, down 0.9% from last year) and an operating income of 45 billion yen (US$424 million, up 36.9% from last year).
McDonald's Holdings Co. also rose 23% in Japan on Tuesday after reports that it will offer sponsored content in the Pokémon GO app in Japan. The app launched in Japan on Friday.
The Pokémon GO app launched in select countries on July 6 and has since launched in more than 35 countries.
Sources: Reuters (Hideyuki Sano), Polygon (Samit Sarkar) via The Verge
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