Nintendo Is Now More Valuable Than Sony Thanks To Pokémon GO

Yay. I've been looking at Nintendo's share value and how people have been going crazy over it. Even with all these gains it's still worth less than half of its heyday value in 2007.

I do expect its value to increase some more but it's a bubble that can easily burst. And new investors in Nintendo have bought in because of mobile gaming and will only increase the pressure on Nintendo to increase investment in this market.

I hope this won't make them focus on mobile-only

Pretty impressive though the big question is whether all that positivity is drowned when the NX reveal comes along.

I think investors are overreacting. One successful game does not make a successful company (especially when it's not even their game). I don't see how nintendo has twice as much value as a month ago.

Then again I'm not an investor, so what do I know...

What happens when Pokemon Go's popularity drops off?

All of Nintendo's financials and stuff are gonna be based around a single phenomenon when it still has to make sure it succeeds beyond this single App, but everything that can influence the company is now acting like it's the most successful and steady brand ever because of one mobile hit.

It seems business and the financial market is extremely stupid and only really thinks in the very short term. I hope Nintendo doesn't get too caught up in all the hype and allow one huge wave to blind it to that fact that there's a whole ocean out there that needs to be navigated too.

I mean, think about like this: Companies are all about money, profit, satisfying shareholders, constantly showing improving results year on year . . . and Nintendo has suddenly had this huge surge that is likely going to give it one of its best financial records in generations. So, what happens when Pokemon Go fades? Every single statistic is going to make it look like the company is failing because all the numbers suddenly aren't going up anymore. But that's a totally false indicator—yet, the shareholders will still be like "We want dividends." and "You need to return to your success of last year.", while it's shares are dropping down to a more realistic level and sales are back to a more normal rate and so on.

Weird.

Looks truly great for Nintendo right now though, and hopefully a lot of stuff will come from this sudden success that might help it do better business for a while, such that when Pokemon Go does eventually fade Nintendo's business doesn't just drop like a bomb again and leave everyone once again crying out about the imminent death of the company.

Again: Weird.

@chardir Intersting you should say that, because that's just what I was writing about above too.

It's just strange how short-sighted the market seems to be around such things. And surely it can't be healthy for any company trying to do business around such a fickle system that can almost literally turn on a dime.

Let's just hope Nintendo doesn't buy into the hype too much and maintains a bit more of a grounding in reality.

lol at "thanks to Pokemon GO", the point isn't Pokemon GO. Nintendo has a minor role in the project and makes less cash than Apple and Google from it.
The investor frenzy is more on the line of "wake up Nintendo, you're the company with the most recognizable and saleable set of characters not named Disney, it's time to break the shell and conquer the world, and we want profit from that!", investors probably want movies and tv shows and theme parks and stuff.
But everything will be forgotten when in 4 months nobody will have GO on their phone anymore, Wii U and 3DS will be the least sold console during christmas period and Nintendo still won't announce none of the above because well, it's Nintendo (in the meantime I fully expect the NX to be just another gimmick and more cashbait of the one-month-at-the-top-of-the-app-store type instead of real games).

EDIT: Again, for the people that begin to jump at me every time I express my disdain for Pokemon GO. Of course here, on a site for Nintendo nerds, you're hyped as hell for it and especially the oldest of you are beginning to think that it is Pokemon Mania 2.0
It's not. The mobile market is a feeble jungle. If you pay 40 box for a game, you stick with it. You convince friends it's awesome, because you want to play with them. A free game means that as soon the first group of people will declare it uncool, the game is going to die quickly. Look, almost 10 years of App Store brought to the gaming industry a grand total of maybe a couple of franchises that have enjoyed prolonged success, and tons of frenzy-of-the-month that have died quickly. Remember when everyone was playing Flappy Birds? C'mon. That's not gaming. It's bathroom gaming, it's good for five minutes for a week, then the fun dies. I just hope that Nintendo isn't really stupid enough to consider GO a proof that they need to bet on mobile. They never should have crossed that line to begin with.

You can't accuse traders of not thinking long term when the the whole stock market is built around short term thinking. It just means a lot of people are buying Nintendo shares, so the price goes up. They're buying them, with the thinking the price will keep going up during this roll out, with the intention to sell them again in a couple of weeks for more than they paid.

Oh boy, Sony sucks almost as hard as Sega right now

@SLIGEACH_EIRE would you like to learn about how stocks split and what it means for the company? Or would you like to keep on thinking that your graph means that the company's stock is at half the value as it was in 2007?

Stock market be like:

How is this possible? Nintendo didn't do much at E3 and won! Nintendo didn't do much with Pokémon GO and winning. I think I see now why they didn't want to do much with WiiU this year. It will be the number one console this gen following this pattern! Crazy bloody genius' at work...or Ganon...

Awesome stuff. Pokemon GO is lightning in a bottle and they're harnessing it completely.

Expect a bigger mobile push from Nintendo in the coming years. And while that may be a bad thing for traditional gaming (I doubt it), traditional gamers are getting more and more stingy with their money; expecting everything to release at $20 or it's too expensive.

I embrace this avenue they're going in. If they really wanted to break the gaming world, NX will sport some sort of functionality with their mobile games.

GROOAAAHHH

I'm honestly sick of hearing about Pokemon GO and it hasn't even been out (in my region) that long. And because over time Nintendo has morphed into a "hype" company, I can see their little antennas potentially going nuts right now thinking, "Hmmm, this mobile space..." I don't have anything against mobile gaming per se - the "games" just aren't any good or they're not deep enough like traditional games are. Hopefully, Nintendo realizes both mobile and non-mobile gaming can (and do) coexist and are both profitable instead of potentially forcing "microwave gaming" down everyone's throats.

They'll always be more valuable than Sony to me <3

I just hope that nintendo use that money to aquire a developer such as 'capcom' or uses it to fund exclusive games such as bayonetta 3 or throw money at Konami for use or purchase of ip such as Bomberman, because the nx needs to have a variety of different games to be successful!

I was told Nintendo is the majority stakeholder in The Pokemon Company, but the actual Pokemon IP is split in 3 almost equal parts. A tad more than 1/3 of the IP is owned by Nintendo and TPC ownes another 1/3, which means Nintendo is actually making more money than is assumed in almost all popular and gaming media.

And with their royal share in Niantic the real question isn't which cut Ninty will get, but if this game will monetize its popularity and if it does; for how long.

@vitalemrecords Perhaps you'd like to share with us exactly when nintendo stock last split and what the equivalent 2007 value really is?

Am I the only person who feels a bit snobbish that the entire world is making such a fuss of this subpar mobile game when the best console of this gen (The Wii U) with a lineup of exclusives not bettered since the SNES has been generally ignored.

Hopefully Nintendo feel the same snobby way as I do. Roll on Breath of the Wild and the NX.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
correct but pokemon go is really their only cash cow unless animal crossing becomes another hit which I think it will... especially if they can actually implement AR into it...

@Boerewors The franchise is owned by The Pokémon Company, all three companies (Nintendo, GAME FREAK and Creatures own equal parts). On top of that, Nintendo owns the trademarks to the logo and the franchise names. Nintendo is less responsible for this game than people credit them for. It's a project that was most likely handled by The Pokémon Company (TPC) and Niantic solely. It's just that when TPC makes money, so does Nintendo in a way.

@hepgius
Even though what you are saying is true and makes sense.. pokemon go is an outlier... EVERYBODY is talking or playing this thing... MMA.. ESPN... CNBC... LOCAL NEWS... even seniors as an excuse to get out and exercise or play with grand kids... it's Wii sports all over again... and remember pokemon is a marketing machine aka disney ... sure I know people who love pokemon and play every game.. but this is different even causals are getting into it...
yes it will loose some of it's muster but this is not going away....

How much money are they actually making from the game though? Aren't increases in share value 'virtual' money, only worth anything if you sell the shares?

I know nothing, so happy to be educated...

@Kirk
your first comment: look at Apple and iPhone...and yes apple pays a dividend lol
your second comment: welcome to the stock market... though I wouldn't get too concern but remember going mobile was in the plans anyway....

@arrmixer Like the Wii U was such a success because the Wii was a phenomenon? I'm sorry but hard data count more. Games on App Store / Google Play, burn brighter (because, I mean, we're talking about a 3 billion devices user base) and die quicker. In 6 months GO will be a 100th-ish-in-the-top-charts app with only the usual pokemon nerds playing. The Wii example is exceptionally correct because even if the console was absurdly popular, it brought nothing to Nintendo popularity in the long run. For a gaming company the mobile environment isn't ready to be the future yet. If and when Apple and Google Windows10-fy their OSs, and console truly become something more on the line of XBox-play-anywhere, maybe we can talk again. In the meantime I hope Nintendo is smart enough to focus on NX and understand that mobile gaming as of now is a toxic, dangerous environment.

getting a little bit tired of these pokemon-only news...

@Piersen So ancient. Such ruin.

irony of ironies, it isn't even available in japan yet.

WOW! I didn't see that coming!

@Jamotello There's reports going around that it's releasing in Japan tomorrow (20th) so there's room for even more crazy share price increases.

@hepgius
As I wrote this is an outlier not to be confused with the throw away titles .. Data is a predictive tool that is never perfect ... Though I think you are being a little bias in analysis .. Maybe not liking where Nintendo might be in five years ... Long term 🤔..Only time will tell if you are right I'll just agree to disagree 🙂

The casuals are back, baby! Make this game link up with a Pokemon Arena type game on NX and soak up the blue ocean of noobs.

@Kirk @chardir "One successful game does not make a successful company"

But it isn't just about Pokemon Go. While NL keeps playing it up - b/c honestly, what else is there? - there has been other Ntineod news that I'm sure is contributing to the stock price, even if half of it is b/c of Go -

new $500m amusement park opening in 2020 just before the Olympics, which shows Ntineod expanding it's IP presence

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/nintendos_theme_park_in_japan_is_expected_open_before_the_2020_olympics

Mini NES, which shows Nintendo monetizing nostalgia
Do I really need a link for that 1?

Nintendo Store is now Nintedo NYC, meaning there may be more stores to sell more Pokemon merchandise.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/01/new_yorks_nintendo_world_store_prepares_for_major_revamp

4 more mobile apps coming, AC and FE being known, 2 not known, so that's 4 more mobile games for investors to bet on.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/04/fire_emblem_and_animal_crossing_franchises_are_heading_to_smart_devices

And whatever NX is, it's coming out in March 2017, and it will initially sell 2 million, and then it may die, and many investors are probably planning on selling their stock the day it releases.

So no, it isn't about 1 game, or even just Nitneod being on mobile, it's about Ntineod on mobile, Nintedo licensing thier IP, Nitneod expanding into merchandising and monetizing nostalgia - there will be an SNES Mini at least, and maybe a Gamecube Mini or N64 Mini, so that's more future income.

It's a whole new way of thinking and acting, a whole new Nintendo. Iwata was a gamer at heart, Kimishima is a businessman, businessmen make money, not games. But if games on mobile make money, they'll make those too.

I think Nintendo would rather have a flavor-of-the-month mega hit on mobile than a consistent underachiever like the Wii U. Prepare to see a change in company strategy. I foresee another NX delay because of this 😕

@Boerewors Nintendo owns 33% of The Pokemon Company alongside both Gamefreak and Creatures as they are all founding members of TPC. Nintendo also owns a majority stake in Creatures as well plus they own the trademarks to all pokemon names etc. As well as having some stakes in Niantic

Interesting.
We all know what's next.. One foot at a time other companies will follow Nintendo's footsteps.

The NX is going to have a lot to do with mobile (imo) and yet still have console features

When you can get me play something Pokemon related, you have yourself a winning product.

@rjejr But, let's be honest here, most of that other stuff was already known about before, and it didn't affect the shares. The main two things are Pokemon Go and the NES Classic Edition, I'd say. And, given the huge phenomenon that Pokemon Go is, I think that's by far the biggest contributor to any change in Nintendo's evaluation. Although, obviously all the other stuff is having its own impact too.

It's good news for Nintendo but only short term.

The last craze I remember was Loom Bands. Shops could not get enough of them and with in four months they could not get rid of them.

This is really worrying to me, Pokemon Go, a game that is not on a Nintendo console and not developed by Nintendo is making their stocks rise dramatically.

It's the 3DS and the Wii U that should be increasing their stocks. I worry about where Nintendo goes with this news, they will follow the money and I really worry about Nintendo keeping their integrity through this.

Killjoy comment section T.T

@GrailUK they didn't do anything for the PRESS at e3. for players who showed up, they did a whole lot of zelda. they aim to please the player, not the press. there wasn't a stampede of anybody running towards any of the otehr booths afaik.

@Grumblevolcano or maybe the stock market will close as everybody starts playing it. that's entirely possible considering how nuts things have been for the game.

@arrmixer
Interesting, because ACNL itself has more than 300 villagers, from 'Beauty / Awesome' until the 'Beast / Ugly' . Hopefully Nintendo don't limited by 10 villagers maximum for mobile version. X(

@Stu13
Thanks to Pokemon GO. Now almost my students talking about and play it also. Also, i caught my siblings, the other people around me got into that hype. Now everybody suddenly Crazy in Pokemon. Yay...

This is the biggest smartphone game ever. It will take a while before it dies out. In the meantime, Nintendo can and will do a billion other things. Some will be successful some not. Companies went public or were acquired for billions for one game successes. I still get Facebook invites to play candy crush all the time. This is the best time ever for Nintendo. And yes it is still half the value of what it was in 2007.

@Project_Dolphin haha! Thanks Project_Dolphin, feel much better now!

Never underestimate Nintendo.

@Nintendian
Yeah. The Power of Love...ermm i mean Nintendo is back.

It's more like expected value than actual value though isn't it.
They need the NX to be equally as successful as the PS4 to turn this current expectation into something meaningful.

Definitely an over reaction- unless you are thinking very, very long term. Nintendo will probably miss their numbers- or at best have a very luke warm earnings report(s) over the next several quarters.

The key will be monetizing mobile, then somehow channeling/directing mobile to its consoles. IF they can do this, then I think there's hope for Nintendo.

I just think it will take at least a year, maybe two for this to show up in earnings, especially with the Wii U's sales being so low, no big releases till March of next year and developmental costs associated with the NX.

Is it safe to say that Nintendo and maybe even Game Freak had nothing to do with this app? If so what does that mean for the future? This game could be easily cloned, into anything.

Pokemon GO is just HUUUUUGE. I made the mistake of referring to it in my class, and I thought one of my students would start screaming from excitement lol. Only one girl didn't know about it, but after only 2 minutes of her classmates talking about it, she hopped in the hype train with the others( It's coming here this Saturday )

It cute alot of people think now that Pokemon Go has done so well Nintendo will go all mobile. Not like they are planning movies,animes, and theme parks. There also this thing called the NX so they will be supporting that.

@StitchScout I know. Nintendo has said that there reason for making mobile games is to recover the losses made on Wii U, and that the money made was going to be put back into core games.

Nintendo knows better than anyone that just because something is insanely successful, doesn't mean you can make it your sole focus, because that success can always disappear. They learnt that the hard way with the Wii and Wii U.

@Project_Dolphin That is true. It is, however, about attracting the right new fans, I'd say. So, let's hope Nintendo tries to do that as much as possible going forward.

@chardir Well with a company like GameFreak, yes one game can... Nintendo has countless good games as well... So I don't see what you are talking about.

@Darkthany The company Nintanic or whatever it's called, made the game and actually Pokemon Go is a clone of another game they made which is basically the same thing, but didn't do so well.. It's the Pokemon IP and License that made this game so popular.

@Ufaowl I don't think we'll have to worry too much about that. The success of Nintendo's mobile software promotes brand recognition, which is good for their own dedicated hardware. There are some geniuses at work behind the reformed company, and they are building a bigger fanbase for their upcoming hardware.

@Kirk It's certainly predominantly Go that got the ball rolling, but now its probably as much momentum as anything else, everybody jumping in to fill up the bubble before it pops. Maybe people who have never even heard of Pokemon Go or Ntnedo are just buying the skyrocketing stock while it's still skyrocketing. Its 'basically a pyramid scheme at this point, everybody wants it for the 120% return on investment, the stock price is going up b/c it's going up, it's famous for being famous, and everybody always wants a piece of the famous.

Will be interesting to watch in the run up to the NX reveal and launch.

@Kirk
It would be different if Nintendo was a brand new mobile company no one ever heard of and this was a fluke hit. But that's not the case.

Nintendo has been doing stuff like this for 30 years. With the Wii, and the DS before it, even with Super Mario Bros and the NES console boom and the Donky Kong arcade.

They have a history of breakout success littered throughout the years. People know that if they can do it once, if they can do it twice, if they can do it three times... they can do it again.

@rjejr And that's why they need to hope that Animal Crossing on mobile will help mitigate the inevitable drop from the NX's reveal. As for Fire Emblem, I expect that to be a miss overall like Miitomo (though to a much lesser extent obviously).

@rockodoodle
"no big releases til March of next year"

You're forgetting Pokemon Sun/Moon, which is a much bigger release than Zelda BotW.

Soon they'll be bigger than even Disney, with them theme park and movie plans they are planning to bring in the near future.

@IceClimbers I was dicussing those games last night w/ my wife. I think AC can be similar to AC, a time waster. I'm assuming there are Sim games on mobile. I payed a Skylanders game on mobile, very resource management intensive, and I think they can do something similar. Or it may be more like AC HHD where we just touch wallls and floors to change their color.

For FE I think a card game is the way to go. I've never played Hearthstone but apparently its pretty popular. And The Witcher 3 is getting it's own spin-off real life Gwent card game. If they do go full story driven JRPG I'd like to see a simplified battle system, like Might and Magic Clash of Heroes. My wife played it on DS and she really liked it.

But it doesn't mater, nether will be as big Pokemon Go. But they don't have to be, they just have to be good. Mitomo isn't good. But at this point, Ntineod doesn't need to increase their stock value any more, just keep it from plummeting.

As others have pointed out, this news is virtually meaningless unless you're interested in investing in Nintendo. With the likely nosedive shares will take once NX is announced (it has to blow people's expectations away for Nintendo's share prices to stay where they are) this news will likely matter even less. The market's been asking for mobile Nintendo games for 6 years or so, ANY level of success would have been considered massive. In the age of casino capitalism, where people buy and sell shares quickly, don't read too much into this report.

@rjejr It will indeed.

@c1pher_c0mplet Not to be argumentative or anything, but it seems like you haven't been paying attention to Nintendo-related news over the last year or two. Because what you're saying you HOPE Nintendo realize is what they've already specifically said they realize, which is that success in mobile games can support their core business of making traditional games. And we already know they're buzzing over the potential to make money in the mobile space, since they're in the middle of developing several games for mobile devices, obviously with the aim of making obscene amounts of money for relatively little effort.

@-DEMISE- No offense taken. Perhaps I wasn't as clear. Yes, I know Nintendo has previously mentioned their plans for mobile software is to drive their core (as in 'traditional') gaming business. My point was I hope their success in the mobile arena doesn't coerce them to gradually leave their core gaming business by the wayside to focus strictly on the mobile space. (I don't think they'd do that but with Nintendo, you never know, especially since they paint themselves into corners a lot.)

@Kirk Think of the people who bought shares when the rise started and are selling now. They made tons of money. The stock market might look like exploitation of Capitalism, but it sure works.

@IceClimbers Yeah- I guess for the 3ds. I think for this year's Xmas quarter at least, it will hurt Nintendo to essentially not have ANYTHING for the Wii U during the most crucial month of the year. Granted, maybe Pokemon GO will even spark 3ds sales and sales for this game.

@c1pher_c0mplet Right. I hope for the same thing as well. Thankfully the console business is still incredibly lucrative for the industry, so even if Nintendo didn't find much success there with Wii U, they're no doubt still aware that it's an area where they could make a lot of money, which means there's genuine motivation for them to continue making console games that goes beyond just their own desire to stay in that business out of a sense of pride or loyalty to dedicated Nintendo fans.

@hepgius you DO understand, that Pokefans are numerous in the millions... even tens of Millions...

@-DEMISE- but it is honorable, they made the North American market, after Atari was sold to Commodore.
Nintendo saw the birth of a rivalry that jokingly continues to this day,
Nintendo got beat by a young upstart named Sony who went out to Arcade publishers and got them on the PlayStation, which injected casual gamers of all stripes, and championed the audio CD's dominance,
Microsoft saw Sony topple Nintendo the seat of modern video gaming, and released Xbox to temper Sony.
Nintendo will continue with making consoles, its a life line and its good to benefit from Mobile sales as well as 3DS.
this also looks good to existing investors. and improves morale.
now, Sony is not the young upstart they were... there is holes left after the death of the home arcade experience, and mech games as panzer dragoon and Omega Boost has fallen into obscurity. Liberation maiden and kid Icarus hold it up but star fox is needing to be unchained by SF64 and level 5 are ify on handhelds. (not sure if liberation maiden 2 is even in development) Sony hasn't returned to the magic PlayStation so if Nintendo pull either an Ultra NES, Nintendo 64 mk2, Game cube mk 2 or conjure up an Nintendo Play Station Sony will be in deep trouble, Nintendo can reinvent themselves and if they do any of those consoles, the PS4 and Neo will be in dire straits. so much so that not even a PS5 will handle the NX let alone the Scorpio... likely sell even 80-100 Million depending on the games NX has on the table... even more if mobile integration is successful...