Oddly enough, Nintendo shares plummet thanks to Pokemon GO’s success
It wasn’t long after Pokemon GO launched that Nintendo enjoyed a great deal of success. The company saw a 24% bump in shares in their home country of Japan thanks to its overnight success, and it also helped them roar past Sony in market valuation, which is significant as Sony is Nintendo’s biggest rival in Japanese gaming. Eventually, Nintendo stock rose by as much as 50%.
But it’s Pokemon GO’s success that’s also possible for the 14% they just tanked. Apparently, Nintendo shareholders didn’t know Nintendo doesn’t fully own the Pokemon franchise when they made their valuations. How that could go over their heads when Pokemon is a huge part of Nintendo’s business is beyond us. When they found out, they were obviously bummed — all that money Pokemon GO is expected to bring in won’t all go into Nintendo’s coffers.
Instead, Nintendo only owns about 32% of the company which owns Pokemon, which is appropriately named The Pokemon Company. A little history lesson: The Pokemon Company is a joint venture between Nintendo, Game Freak — the developer who exclusively makes Pokemon games for Nintendo’s hardware — and Creatures, Inc.
While the details of the venture have always been largely unknown, we do know that Nintendo doesn’t see 100% of the profit that comes in when Pokemon stuff sells. As such, they won’t be getting 100% of the profit that Pokemon GO will make in its lifetime. We’re not even sure if they’ll get 32% of the money, either, as the details of Niantic’s cut are also unknown.
That said, a smaller chunk of an app that’s poised to become the biggest success in the history of mobile gaming is better than nothing at all, and Nintendo shareholders are likely still happy that the Japanese company is part of it all.
[via The Verge]