With Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sun and Moon hitting the market in 2016, this fiscal year was always going to be a big one for The Pokémon Company. However, a recent disclosure from the firm reveals the incredible impact these games have had - net profit has increased a staggering 26 times over the previous fiscal year.
The Pokémon Company is a privately-owned firm and therefore isn't duty-bound to reveal its accounts, but like many other private businesses in Japan, it does publish some figures at regular intervals each year. On May 30th, The Pokémon Company revealed its net profit was US$143.3 million for the year ending February 28th, 2017.
To put that in perspective, below are the figures for The Pokemon Company’s net profit for the last five years:
- 15th fiscal (year ending on February 28th, 2013): US$16.6 million
- 16th fiscal: US$10.6 million
- 17th fiscal: US$18.4 million
- 18th fiscal: US$5.6 million
- 19th fiscal: US$143.3 million
Pokémon GO will have had a huge impact on that total; the game generates millions in revenue and has created an awareness for the brand which spills over into merchandise and other games - such as Pokémon Sun and Moon. The upshot for Nintendo is that as a part-owner of the company, it also sees a boost during these bumper years. Pokémon really does print money.
[source serkantoto.com]
Comments 18
Holy Pantaloons!
So, what you are saying is that Pokemon XY or Pokemon ORAS or Sun and Moon for that matter are actually negligible when compared to Pokemon GO? And I thought that main series pokemon games were quite damn lucrative.
You can tell I'm self employed because all I can think is it causing a bigger tax bill.
@Hrimfaksi They are, but The Pokémon Company itself doesn't get the vast majority of the money from it. Game Freak and Nintendo do
The Pokémon brand is really strong right now, Sun/Moon have been the best 3DS instalment, Pokémon Go caught huge public attention, and they've made a much stronger mobile presence that they're still building beyond just Go.
@Hrimfaksi
I guess the 3DS games come with far higher manufacturing costs both in the production of a larger game and for cartridges/distribution, and they don't have microtransactions, plus they're limited to the platform base of the 3DS.
@MrGawain
A platform base of roughly 60 million units, which doesn't seem that small, now does it?
About the manufacturing costs: S/M was almost a disaster technically, with the 3D almost always off and the unstable framerate.
I hope these kind of profit make them develop the next games properly, at this point GF is just unjustifiable.
Gotta ca$h em all!
@Adhrast I feel it was a bit more of a Hyrule Warriors Legends case. It runs well on the New 3DS, but less so on the Old 3DS.
@Adhrast
Yup, but how many android phones and tablets and ipads and iphones are there?
Another money printer would be a Breath of the Wild inspired Pokemon adventure for the Switch. I'd suggest also including a sort of Pokemon Stadium mode (that could be available as a separate eshop download too) that lets you import monsters from your Pokemon bank as well as those you've caught in Pokemon Go. Something like this could be a good way to get an extra group of people looking into the Switch.
All thanks to Pokemon Go, it's helped the 3ds series and Pokemon Sun/Moon a lot. I never liked Pokemon games, or Pokemon Go, but I'm glad people did which made it so many more people were introduced to a 3ds, even if it was to just play Pokemon, the collection doesn't stop there...
At this point, Pokemon can be completely unafilliated with Nintendo and still make gangbuster amounts of money.
@Nintendoer My wife has an XL, and I have the New XL model. I can say that the New model runs the game a lot better... but it's still WAY worse than X/Y and ORAS. Doubles and Multi battles are terrible to look at, and almost unbearable on the original 3DS models. Myvwife won't even play multis with me in the new games, and that was one of our go-to features in the gen 6 games.
Meowth used Payday; it was super-effective.
@-DG Gamefreak are really pushing the 3DS (all versions) to it's limit which is why discussion of the next generation staying on the 3DS seems unlikely to me... what would Gamefreak do? Better graphics and WORSE performance or poorer graphics & basic stable performance we should have got in Sun/Moon?
@DanteSolablood Yeah. I honestly HOPE the next games aren't for the 3DS. I feel like Sun/Moon suffered for it. I would prefer they either make the move to Switch or wait for a 3DS successor if there is one.
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