Pokémon GO Player Retention Described as "Phenomenal" as Revenue Soars

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I wish it was out in Canada... and that I had a smartphone.

Question is, how long can they keep the train going? They really need to add more stops and gyms in general aside from obvious features such as more Pokemons, local battle etc

@Snow-Dust Ingress apparently had a portal submitting system, but was taken down last year. (which sucks because Go uses Imgress's portal locations...) Really hope they bring this back in Go, really wanting to put a Stop at the entrance of my neighborhood...maybe even get in a gym somewhere here.

It's pretty amazing. The evening news is even running stories about Pokemon, and not just the crime related ones.

@Megumi_Sagano oh cool, I really hope they bring that in. I live in a building that is famous enough in my suburb but it doesn't have a stop for some reason (yeah, I'm just lazy) but for some reason, a window that is painted with league of legends gets a poke stop

@Megumi_Sagano That system was replaced recently with this:

https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=319928

I'm dying to see how this takes off in Japan

@Snow-Dust Yeah, the closest Stop I have requires me to leave the neighborhood, and cross a pretty big (and busy) street. Not to mention I'm in Florida with its messed up weather. lol

@PlywoodStick You can't request new Stops/Gyms there, that's for existing locations. I've already tried and they immediately responded with a generic email. "We have no plans to take in Stops/Gyms requests" or something like that.

@Megumi_Sagano oh yea... My closest stop is 3 minutes walk away... With 10 others around 5-10min away...

@MJInnocent http://kotaku.com/japanese-fans-are-impatient-about-pokemon-go-1783498347

(Or if you don't want to give Kotaku clicks...)

https://kopitiambot.com/2016/07/12/japanese-fans-are-impatient-about-pokemon-go/

@Megumi_Sagano Interesting, so it doesn't fully work as advertised yet... I guess it's just being used for requests to remove spots at the moment. Not an easy form to find for anyone not appreciative of this modern technological phenomenon... I can already tell that going through the processes involving all these individual requests coming in is going to be an unpalatable experience.

I've been playing it every day since the 6th and have already spent $12. After being hugely disappointed by ORAS I am so happy with Pokémon Go! Maybe Go combined with Sun/Moon can rekindle my love of pokemon!

It's the first F2P mobile app that I've ever spent money on, so there's that. It's genuinely fun, and it doesn't twist your arm to get you to pay.

@Dr_Corndog I know what you mean, this is also my first f2p game I've spent money on. The poke stops are also very generous as well, most game will probably only let you spin 5 pokestops a day and give like 1 pokeball only IF you do get a pokeball

Gen 1 baby! Best ever! We win!

Hmm, must give thus app a go. Is it in Ireland yet? People using it here?

I'm just glad a Pokestop is literally like 5 steps away from where my window is. Though I wish I had a smartphone to actually use it as my iPod can't reach far enough xD...

"more people are using the maps in Pokémon Go, which are powered by Google Maps, than they use the Google Maps app itself".

Is this a dream? Has Nintendo finally taken over the world? I bought Nintendo shares way back in 2010/2011 and been waiting for this ever since. Can the stock reach the Wii's peak $80??

This is a game, so it is great news for both gamers and Nintendo fans. Nintendo is not abandoning any of its core stuff - I just hope the core stuff is just as successful.

People are quitting their jobs to become Poke hunters... I wonder if in 200 years they'll talk about video games history, they'd mention Pong, Super Mario Bros... but the biggest presentation will belong to Pokemon Go.

@dumedum Quit trying to build up your shares lol. Seriously though, well done Nintendo, Pokémon Company, Niantic, Google, McDonalds... ... ...

I think a week is too small a timeframe to really just retention.

@Snow-Dust Yeah, exactly. So when I spend money on it, it's more of a thank-you to the developers for making a genuinely fun game than because I need more Pokeballs.

Question for anyone... purely from a profitability standpoint, do you think this success is sustainable?

I'm not sure it's done growing yet either right now, but it will eventually find it's maintainable average and that will last for a longer while. I'm optimistic about continued growth, but am curious what type of lasting numbers they can achieve.

My question, in a nutshell: A fad, or a staple?

I am already done with it. It's just not like a Pokémon game. The lack of depth is just too much.

Novelty wore off very quickly. Bring on Pokémon sun.

@HeroOfTime32 depends on the updates. If they include major updates once in a while then it could last longer but imo, it will become a staple once they achieve local battles probably 2v2 or free for all

@Snow-Dust That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm hoping they properly implement battles. That alone would provide sustainability. Even cooler would be 2v2 team battles.

I just picked up a twenty five dollar Google card all going toward Pokémon Go . Loving it..

They need to overhaul the battle system. Especially when syncing to servers for gyms, the tap fest is atrocious

Wow, hopefully they can keep users engaged in the long run.

I hope they won't release this in China anytime soon. Nintendo needs to release Gen 1-7 there first to get people to experience Pikemon the right way before releasing this game.

@Don yeah that's not good for the Chinese fans. They deserve to play a proper Pokémon game first.

It is phenomenal. It makes idiots plunge off cliffs (ibf that actually happened...), how that can not be phenomenal and meta?

The scary part is the potential. It isn't even out everywhere and it is this big. Plus they may eventually add festures, once the servers can take it.

Well, it is only a few day yet. But check this out:

http://gonintendo.com/stories/261549-pokemon-go-players-flock-to-central-park-to-catch-vaporeon

It's just like the original trailer for the game.

@dumedum If the estimates are correct, Pokémon Go is already bringing in ~$6.5 million a day in the US alone. That's ~$2.4 billion a year at this rate, with at least ~$720 million a year going straight to Nintendo.

That's already more revenue than what Nintendo gets from sales of worldwide Wii U software alone - even with the assumption that all software sold was $60 first-party games, with a 10% of sales being on the eShop.

I can't wait to see what new features they add in the future.. And I don't care what gen wunners say, all 700+ need to eventually be in the game.

What will also be huge (if technologically possible) is if there is some kind of connectivity to Sun and Moon

@UmbreonsPapa I suspect the majority of new features will just be adding 6 more generations worth of pokemon.

Remember Pokemon go is only the first gen of Pokemon.
Nintendo can release each particular generation in waves for additional revenue streams.

Or Nintendo is going to capitalise on the success of Pokemon Go and open world sandbox game is going to be created.
I can vision Nintendo releasing to NX an open world sandbox GTA style game which is majority unlocked like Smash Bros WiiU, but to play and complete certain missions/quests you'll need to have a particular amiibo.

@TheWPCTraveler are you sure that percentage of the revenue will go to Nintendo? That'd be great, but I seem to remember reading an article on here recently that said that the percentage of revenue going directly to Nintendo could well be relatively small.

@UmbreonsPapa Pokebank

@luke88 30% of Pokémon Go revenue is rather small compared to what Nintendo is used to (60-100%, depending on the retail medium).

I'm assuming that the cut Apple takes from proceeds off purchases on the App Store is ~30%. If we assume an equal split between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Niantic for the rest of the proceeds, Nintendo would end up with (23+8)% as a result of their stake in The Pokémon Company.
Hence the 30% figure.

See, the main problem I have with Pokemon Go is that it's surely reinforcing to Nintendo that a gimmick and/or some hook, in this case the hugely popular social aspect, is more important to making a hit and getting big returns than actual quality and polish, and maybe even all that is ultimately important. And I fear it might starting thinking "Why are we bothering trying to make our products polished and high quality when we really just need to find some hook or social aspect that will compel the masses to rush out and get it in there millions?"

I don't want that to happen, but it might if Nintendo decides to just go with the notion that big downloads or sales numbers is paramount to everything else ultimately, which is likely true in the short term but maybe not so much in the long term.

It will be interesting to see if Niantic bothers to polish this game to the kind of level it bullshotted in the first trailer, now that it's a global phenomenon, or if it just adds a few more features to make the App even more popular and "sticky" but leaves the overall level of quality and polish basically as is.

If it were me, I'd be looking to update most of the assets with higher quality versions now that I know the App is a huge hit, and just up the overall level of presentation and polish in general. I'd want owners and players to know that it's not just about hooking them in and selling micro-transactions but also about providing them best quality of experience possible in terms of overall presentation too. And I think Nintendo should be using its influence here to make sure that happens.

It remains to be seen if quality and polish truly matters to these companies, even when they now have clear evidence they can get everyone onboard the gravy train with the bare minimum of effort, or if the figures and downloads/sales stats trump all else as I fear.

Just how fugly and clunky will Nintendo allow products with its name attached to them be if it knows the millions of downloads/sales are going to be there regardless. . . .

@TheWPCTraveler

How about Google's stake??

@Mikanes I'm lumping them in with Niantic and the app store owner take.

Besides, they're in selling consumer data, not maps data. No need for them to shoot themselves in the foot by charging for GMaps.

@PlywoodStick thank you

@Kirk I say we wait and see and not start putting the cart before the horse.

@Kirk Improvements will no doubt be made so it can run better. Hell I imagine it's ALREADY going to run better after releasing in half of Europe.x Gets all the apk users off the US server and unclogs things a little bit for us.

Visual upgrades I think are going to be few and far between. As it is the game is a destroyer of batteries. Using higher quality assets or more complex models will just make the drain even greater. You also need to consider those with weaker phones who already struggle to run an app this intensive. More complexity just means they can't play.

Astounding. How does it make money other than through in game purchases?

@Acein210 Exactly! Love gen 1! Honestly once they expand to more pokemon I think my interest will plummet.

@Kirk If you're worried about it dragging down the quality of Nintendo-developed titles, well, it's already dragging down the quality of Nintendo Life comment sections. Just see @trainyourpoke above.

This is sort of off topic but I was thinking it'd be awesome if instead of pokemon go they made a game similar but where you photograph the pokemon instead kinda like real life Pokemon Snap.

@TheWPCTraveler Indeed.

@Indielink lol

Changing the assets in the game, such as the player model or Pokemon models, will have absolutely zero difference on the current battery use.

That's not how it works.

@UmbreonsPapa I say we raise potential issues now, before we get to a point where it would already be too late for what we say to even possibly matter in the slightest.

@Project_Dolphin Well, nothing truly great comes easily.

@Project_Dolphin I actually don't think Sony and Microsoft have put out too much trash here, if we're talking about the quality of presentation and level of polish of the games they've developed/published. There's likely many Microsoft/Sony published games that people subjectively don't enjoy on those systems, sure, but overall I'd say they're at least putting quite a bit of effort into ensuring their first and second party titles, or any officially licensed games, are generally pretty high quality. But, I'm sure I'd have plenty of things to find issue with if I were on Pure Xbox or Push Square. Here, on Nintendo Life, it's Nintendo I'm calling out.

@Acein210 Disgusting genwunner.

@Project_Dolphin I agree, but the gameplay stuff is harder to quantify than the simple presentation and graphics issues, and Nintendo usually has pretty good gameplay regardless of everything else, so when I go on about Ninetendo stuff I'm usually pointing out its lack of effort in terms of competing with other modern consoles when it comes to relative levels of presentation and polish. I expect Nintendo's gameplay stuff to be good-great as a matter of default, otherwise that would just be a total insult for a Nintendo product imo. It's why I am nowhere near as enamoured with Pokemon Go as most people seem to be; I see it as largely junk but with a very good social hook. But, it's not a 100% Nintendo product so it gets some leeway.

I really do agree with you in general though, because I don't want the presentation and graphics to just act as smoke and mirrors for crap games either; I won't both great presentation/graphics and great gameplay.

However, I don't actually think there's quite as many officially licensed "turds" being put out by Sony and Microsoft as you seem to think. Games like the ones seen in this link Games published by Microsoft on Xbox One and this link Games published my Sony on PS4 are generally pretty good games, and some of them are even great.

Nintendo isn't putting out too many "turds" either, but because I'm on a Nintendo site, I'm pointing out the issues when I do see them, and the issues usually come down to something in the areas of presentation and graphics imo.

@Project_Dolphin I totally agree. I still find many classic 16-bit games eminently more playable than most modern video games, largely because a lot of new video games forget that the most important thing is actually being genuinely fun to play above all else. Presentation and graphics (artistry/visuals, as opposed to purely technical aspects) are and always have been very important as far as I'm concerned, but I always want great controls and gameplay too (as the highest priority). I do, however, expect modern games to really try to achieve modern levels of presentation and graphics basically as a matter or course, even those that are going for a classic retro look, like Shovel Knight as a great example. And, I guess because I've seen Nintendo at its absolute best, which to me was in the SNES era, I expect this level of quality from Nintendo today too, doubly so.

Nintendo is doomed.

@Kirk A little late in replying. I look at it this way. You can argue about the style of games Nintendo has released as of late. You can argue about the frequency of games. But I can't say I've ever been disappointed about the quality and polish (at least from the games I've purchased and play). As it stands, Nintendo has done a pretty darn good job in supporting its games after release (at least the ones that we knew would get support after release). I see no reason why Pokemon Go won't receive the same treatment (though there is the question on just how involved Nintendo actually is in its development).