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[[Pokémon GO]] has undoubtedly been a success since its launch, on July 6, 2016. A wide phenomenon that still has to have a worldwide release, but that nevertheless already captured the interest of millions of people. From the beginnings of the franchise created by Satoshi Tajiri – inspired by his childhood hobby of insect collecting – in the early 90’s, to its recent incarnation on the smartphones, there seems to be no stopping to this longtime series, even if there have been a few bumps on the road for the latest game app.
Described in the official Pokémon Go website as a Real World Adventure, the augmented reality game was originally launched in three countries: USA, Australia and New Zealand. It quickly increased in popularity, becoming viral. It’s the fastest mobile game ever to reach No. 1 <ref name="venturebeat"> http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/11/pokemon-go-outpaces-clash-royale-as-the-fastest-game-ever-to-no-1-on-the-mobile-revenue-charts/</ref>, and it has become the biggest mobile game in US history, attracting just under 21 million daily active users. If this trend continues, it could even surpass the number of daily active users of Snapchat and Google Maps, on Android [2].
The massive success brought, inevitably, an increase in Nintendo’s shares value [3]. Viral means good business, and App Annie communications boss Fabien Pierre-Nicolas has estimated that Pokémon GO could be generating over $1 million of net revenue for Niantic Labs, the game’s developer <ref name="venturebeat"> http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/11/pokemon-go-outpaces-clash-royale-as-the-fastest-game-ever-to-no-1-on-the-mobile-revenue-charts/</ref>. All of this with an official release in only three countries. A phased roll-out launch has begun in Europe, with the release of the app in Germany on the 13th and the United Kingdom on the 14th of July. Other countries are expected to follow in the coming days or weeks [4; 5; 6].
Even though a lot of the focus has been on Nintendo, with the boost in the share value of the company, we must not forget that this is a joint venture between The Pokémon Company, Nintendo and Niantic (with Google also in the mix, since Niantic was founded as an internal Google startup [7]). But even if Nintendo has only a minority stake in Pokémon GO, the success of the game app means exposure for the Japanese video game company. Something much needed since many have viewed Nintendo to be on the decline after the success of the Wii [8].
