Nintendo crosses Sony in market value, thanks to Pokémon GO
At 4.36 trillion yen, the Japanese gaming giant is now worth 300 billion yen more than the multinational company.
The market value of Japanese gaming giant Nintendo on Tuesday surpassed that of Sony, with its stock having more than doubled since the release of its widely popular app, Pokémon GO. Nintendo's market capitalisation hit 4.36 trillion yen (Rs 2.76 lakh crore) on Tuesday, after climbing 11% in trading to end at 30,780 yen (nearly Rs 20,000). With this, it beat Sony's market value by more than 300 billion yen (approximately Rs 19,000 crore), AFP reported.
Pokémon GO has been released in a number of other countries, since its July 6 launch in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Nintendo's augmented reality-based app has also helped boost share prices of other companies, such as McDonald's Japan. The fast food chain has seen a 23% jump since Friday, when it started giving out Pokémon figurines with its Happy Meals.
The developer of the smartphone app, Niantic Labs, was drawn into a controversy earlier this month, when it emerged that logging into the game on iOS devices using a Google account allowed the company "full access" to users' information. Niantic, however, said it was working on a fix to correct this coding error.