Gamers in Japan, home of Nintendo’s Pokemon, waited in vain on Wednesday for the launch of its smash-hit mobile phone game, amid media reports that the developers behind it had hit the brakes over concerns that manic demand would overload server capacity.
Nintendo’s shares suffered a rare bad day since Pokemon GO took the world by storm, tumbling 13 per cent to around $260 on the disappointment. Even so, the stock has gained 86 per cent since its US launch earlier this month, adding $17 billion to its market capitalisation.
“Isn’t Japan the home of Pokemon I beg them to hurry up!,” said Toshihide Onchi, a 40-year-old system engineer who took part in the trial of the game’s beta version.
Late on Tuesday technology news site TechCrunch and other media outlets reported the launch would take place the following day. TechCrunch later reported a postponement, but said the rollout for one of the world’s most critical gaming markets was still imminent.
A spokeswoman for Pokemon Company, which created the game along with Nintendo and Google-spinoff Niantic, declined to comment on the report, reiterating that nothing had been decided over the Japan launch date. Nintendo referred any queries regarding Pokemon GO to Pokemon Company.
Analysts are betting the success of game, available officially in 35 countries and played in many more, will be transformational for Nintendo. While Pokemon GO will not prove a major direct boost, it could prompt Nintendo to cash in more effectively on an extensive cupboard of characters.
Niantic CEO John Hanke said on Friday the developers were being extra-cautious in Japan, given the level of expectation and sheer number of players. “The technical challenge for us is having enough server capacity on the back end to handle that number of users,” he said.
