Nintendo / DeNA

Nintendo may have endured a difficult 2015 with delayed titles and underperforming hardware, but on the Japanese stock market the company has been dominant, outpacing Sony and other traditional game publishers.

This robust performance is largely down to Nintendo's deal with DeNA, which will see it release games on smart devices like phones and tablets. This announcement caused a massive surge in stock value, which only declined when Nintendo confirmed that its first smartphone release - Miitomo - would be delayed until next year.

The graph below - created by Gamesindustry.biz - shows how Nintendo compared to Japanese rival Sony, which arguably enjoyed a better year in terms of sales. The spike at the start of the year can be attributed to the release of Splatoon, which scored bumper sales and received critical acclaim, reassuring investors that Nintendo still has what it takes to create appealing new IP. March's DeNA announcement caused the biggest leap, and it was November's delay news which caused the drop at the end of the graph.

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Sony, on the other hand, fared slightly less well because of concerns with the company's wider business. It's important to remember that Sony isn't just involved with video games, but many other sectors - some of which it is struggling in, such as the smartphone business.

Nintendo's stock managed to outclass that of traditional Japanese publishers, too - as the graph below indicates.

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Clearly, investors are hopeful that Nintendo's shift to smart devices will lead to bumper profits in 2016 - if that doesn't prove to be the case then stock value is likely to drop sharply. Next year's stock performance will also be influenced by the release of Nintendo's next console, codenamed NX.

[source gamesindustry.biz]