It may be short-lived, but for now, Nintendo’s stock market value has surpassed Sony’s own, all thanks to Pokemon Go. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo’s market value has climbed over $40 billion, passing Sony’s $38 billion.
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game for mobile phones, which allows players to catch, evolve, and fight Pokemon by simply walking. It’s been estimated that the mobile game has over 20 million daily users since the game’s launch on July 6, 2016 in the US. Nintendo is an investor in the property, with Niantic and The Pokemon Company behind the game’s development and publishing on the mobile platform. Just imagine what its value could be if it was the publisher instead of a backer.
That said, while this all looks fantastic for Nintendo at the moment, analysts caution that Nintendo won’t necessarily keep this elevated status, especially if its upcoming mobile games or new console do not do as well as Pokemon Go.
“Pokemon Go is a genuine phenomenon − just after little over a week, it has added US $19 billion to the value of Nintendo,” Deutsche Bank analyst Han Joom Kim explained to Bloomberg. “We need to see further hard evidence to model in significant further upside.”
Sources: PlayStationLifeStyle via Bloomberg, Gamasutra, Nintendo Enthusiast