Nintendo turns into star of Apple’s show
Move over, Apple. The breakthrough winner from the iPhone maker’s big reveal Wednesday was video game maker Nintendo.
Shares of Nintendo’s U.S. listed shares jumped 29% to $36.32 apiece Wednesday after the gaming pioneer said during the Apple conference it would bring several titles to Apple’s various mobile platforms. Nintendo plans to release a version of its co-owned Pokémon Go augmented-reality game to the Apple Watch and an “endless runner”-style game using Mario Bros. characters to the iPhone called Super Mario Run. Contrast Nintendo stock’s big jump with the barely noticeable 68cent, or 0.6%, rise in Apple’s own shares to $108.36 after the meeting.
Nintendo shares have gained nearly 50% in value with the rise of Pokémon Go. Nintendo shares started skyrocketing almost the moment following the July 6 release of the game, which was an immediate gaming hit, being downloaded more than 100 million times.
The game was developed by Niantic, which is partially owned by Nintendo and Google parent company Alphabet.
The massive rise in Nintendo’s shares stands out especially given Apple’s own stock is stagnant, even after its announcement. Shares of Apple are up roughly 2% this year while the Standard & Poor’s 500 has risen nearly 9%. Apple’s stock did get a better first-day reception than in recent history, the best since the 1.4% gain in 2012 when the iPhone 5 was announced.