Nintendo shares have spiked on the release of Pokémon Go, the company's first serious attempt to bring its intellectual property to third-party mobile platforms.
Gradually rolling out across the globe - more slowly than planned thanks to server capacity issues, with the UK one of the regions to see a delay in official availability - Pokémon Go is based upon Google-owned Niantic Labs' Ingress. Like Ingress, Pokémon Go ties into a smartphones' GPS to map in-game objects to real-world locations; Pokémon Go does away with the sci-fi trappings of its predecessor, however, and instead has the player finding Pokémon characters in augmented reality and 'capturing' them.
While Nintendo has previously refused to licence its intellectual property for third-party use - following some disastrous experiments including a terrible series of Zelda games for the Philips CD-i console - the company has recently been struggling on the back of the commercial unpopularity of its Wii U console. Having announced plans to produce theme-park rides and mobile software based on its IP, Pokémon Go represents its first major project to reach the public - and investors are impressed.
Despite some negative press - including reports that armed robbers are lurking around Pokémon Go locations to rob players of expensive smartphones and some individuals failing to pay attention to their surroundings while staring at the screen and thus getting injured, though these incidents are naturally few and far between - the release of Pokémon Go has seen Nintendo's share price rise more than 36 per cent between Friday and Monday trading - its biggest single jump since 1983, and representing a gain of around £6 billion in the company's market cap.
Those eager to get playing have taken to side-loading the application onto their devices, but with reports that malicious files are being shared disguised as Pokémon Go installers it's advised that Pokémon fans instead wait for the official release to hit their country's app store.
Gradually rolling out across the globe - more slowly than planned thanks to server capacity issues, with the UK one of the regions to see a delay in official availability - Pokémon Go is based upon Google-owned Niantic Labs' Ingress. Like Ingress, Pokémon Go ties into a smartphones' GPS to map in-game objects to real-world locations; Pokémon Go does away with the sci-fi trappings of its predecessor, however, and instead has the player finding Pokémon characters in augmented reality and 'capturing' them.
While Nintendo has previously refused to licence its intellectual property for third-party use - following some disastrous experiments including a terrible series of Zelda games for the Philips CD-i console - the company has recently been struggling on the back of the commercial unpopularity of its Wii U console. Having announced plans to produce theme-park rides and mobile software based on its IP, Pokémon Go represents its first major project to reach the public - and investors are impressed.
Despite some negative press - including reports that armed robbers are lurking around Pokémon Go locations to rob players of expensive smartphones and some individuals failing to pay attention to their surroundings while staring at the screen and thus getting injured, though these incidents are naturally few and far between - the release of Pokémon Go has seen Nintendo's share price rise more than 36 per cent between Friday and Monday trading - its biggest single jump since 1983, and representing a gain of around £6 billion in the company's market cap.
Those eager to get playing have taken to side-loading the application onto their devices, but with reports that malicious files are being shared disguised as Pokémon Go installers it's advised that Pokémon fans instead wait for the official release to hit their country's app store.
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