Nintendo’s rich characters, vision sparkle

Nintendo suffered as a late-comer to smartphone games but is seeing the deep wealth of its franchise characters pay off with the success of “Pokemon Go,” even without a launch yet in Japan.

The Japanese game maker was starting to look like a casualty of history until the game was launched in the US earlier in July. Not anymore.

Nintendo Co.’s management missed both the online and mobile revolutions. The popularity of “Pokemon Go” says much about the untapped value of cultural properties — at least when you’re lucky enough to deploy them in the right place at the right time.

“Nintendo might have been slow to adapt to the smartphone era, but now that it’s doing it, it’s doing it in full force and showing tremendous power,” said Hiroyuki Kubota, a financial analyst.

The windfall from what Kubota dubs “Pokenomics” could help reverse Nintendo’s fortunes, although some analysts think its impact on the company’s revenues will be limited because the game is free apart from certain revenue-earning features, he said.

Nintendo’s original Pokemon game featured adventurous wanderings through a fantasy world to collect cute, imaginary monsters. “Pokemon Go” involves finding digital creatures that pop up in the screen of your mobile device as you move about the real world. In the US, where it is extremely popular, some people have injured themselves in pursuit of the monsters, falling or getting distracted while driving.

The augmented-reality game could boost recognition for Nintendo’s brand that likely will trickle down to other sales, including analogue items like Pokemon cards or dolls, income from Pokemon movies, and other Nintendo games such as Donkey Kong, Kubota said. Nintendo’s stock has surged since “Pokemon Go” became available in the US.