Nintendo Benefits From Pokemon Go Halo as 3DS Game Sales Double
- Shipments of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire surge
- The games retail for about $45 and debuted in late 2014
Product Delay Weighs on Nintendo's Shares
Nintendo Co. appears to be benefiting from Pokemon Go after all, just not in the way investors had originally thought.
The Kyoto-based company said last month it didn’t expect the app’s runaway success to have much direct effect on profits, but Pokemon Go seems to be casting a halo that is helping Nintendo’s other businesses. Shipments of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, games for the 3DS handheld device, have more than doubled in Japan since the Pokemon smartphone app debuted in early July, according to data from gaming magazine Famitsu. The titles, which retail for about 4,600 yen ($45) each, have been available in Japan since late 2014. Weekly sales have almost reached 8,000 units, the publisher said, compared with 3,241 shipments during the first week of July.