Pokemon Go fever

On July 22, Pokemon Go, a new application powered by Nintendo was released in Japan. Just after the launch, many users in Japan became also indulged in searching pretty Pokemon anywhere. The stock price of Nintendo was doubled in recent weeks.

RT: Nintendo shares double since Pokémon Go release

Pokemon series are computer games originally developed by Nintendo. The first software was released on Gameboy two decades ago. The success of Pokemon was said to have entended the life of Gameboy as a game console. Many children were enthusiastic to remember the name of Pokemon. Several TV animations, manga, and movies were created. Nowadays, Pokemon represents Nintendo itself.

Users of Pokemon Go have to walk around the field in real to get some Pokemon. This game equips augmented reality. You can see Pokemon on the real ground through the screen of a smartphone with GPS. You can find rare Pokemon near an important building. McDonald’s Japan is collaborating with Pokemon Go, enabling users in McDonald’s store to get various Pokemon.

This kind of system is not utilized for the first time. Ingress, developed by a startup in Google, was launched in 2013. The players are to occupy some portals to expand your territory. Portals to be conquered are connected to buildings and monuments in the real field. Thus, the players have to walk around to seek the portal. The development of Pokemon Go was committed to Niantec, Inc, which became independent from Google after developing Ingress.

Wikipedia: Ingress (video game)

Thus, Pokemon Go is a fusion of a worldly famous character game and an innovative entertainment technology. Considering this fact, the success of Pokemon Go is quite understandable.

However, Nintendo had some new solutions to achieve this application. Previously, Nintendo was not willing to release Smartphone games. Many users of Nintendo games were children. Nintendo considered the players should be protected from any crimes and conflicts. Therefore, it had hesitated to develop games working on a smartphone. The other days, it dared not to add even chatting system on its games. However, recent infiltration of smartphone games made Nintendo change this ideology. The ex-president Iwata committed to participate in developing smartphone games some year ago.

My past entry: President Iwata of Nintendo passed away

My past entry: Kimishima succeeds Nintendo

Prioritizing the US rather than Japan in game releasing is a trend as well. The US has like three times as many populations compared to Japan. Japanese children are decreasing. It is common that some popular Japanese games are released in the US in advance. Sony has the same strategy.

Nintendo’s success is remarkable. It tells us that combination of two known elements can cause a miraculous effect. In addition, there are some strict strategies behind the notable success.