Nintendo stock has almost doubled thanks to Pokémon Go.
Nintendo’s stock price has almost doubled since the release Pokémon Go earlier this month and the game has become the company’s greatest killer app since the release of Wii Sports back in 2008. This marks Nintendo’s highest stock price since 2010 and the company has even broken several records in the Tokyo stock market from their recent gains. The game itself hasn’t even debuted in Japan, the franchise’s home country, and it has quickly become the most popular and highest grossing mobile game ever.
While it might be too late to dump your life savings into Nintendo stock, this will likely set the tone for how Nintendo moves forward, especially when it comes how they treat the mobile platform. The game itself has been a complete social phenomenon despite its launch being plagued with technical issues and constant server crashes due to too many people trying to play at once. Regardless, the game has gained a huge following and Nintendo has even started negotiating deals with companies like McDonald’s to capitalize on the game’s popularity.
Legendary Entertainment to make new live action Pokémon movie about detective Pikachu.
To add to the recent Pokémon Go hype, Legendary Entertainment, producers of the recent Warcraft movie and the upcoming Dead Rising film, have secured the rights for a new live action Pokémon movie, featuring the Great Detective Pikachu from the Japan-only 3DS title of the same name.
This will be the franchise’s first live action movie and likely the first Pokémon film set to release in US theaters in over a decade. There have been many Pokémon films created over the years, but most have only been available through home video or television debuts in the US because of the franchise’s historically poor reception at the US box office. With Legendary at the helm and the massive resurgence in popularity, we might just see the popular franchise get one more shot at the big screen.
If the stars align, maybe the internet can get Danny DeVito to voice Pikachu.
Valve bans CS:GO item gambling after rampant abuse and illegal dealings by famous players.
Valve has finally taken a stance on the emerging Counter Strike: Global Offensive gambling market after years of neutrality on the topic. After numerous scandals involving popular YouTubers and CS:GO players endorsing pseudo-gambling websites that they themselves own, Valve has seen fit to ban all forms of gambling regarding virtual items on their popular gaming platform Steam.
If you aren’t aware of the situation, many of Valve’s games have randomly obtained in-game cosmetic items that have a corresponding real world value based on their rarity in-game. These can be traded on Valve’s Steam Marketplace with funds added to one’s steam wallet. Many of these items are worth significant amounts of money, with some selling for as much as $15,000. Over the years, certain websites began offering gambling services where you could bet these items during tournament matches or even sell the item to the site, essentially allowing people to “cash-out” of the Steam trading system.
The problem with this system is that it is basically online gambling, which is heavily regulated in the US and easily accessible to minors who are legally not allowed to gamble. This led to an investigation by the FCC similar to the sports draft website investigations earlier this year.
Whether it was to protect their underage customers or simply to protect themselves, Valve has finally decided to step in and will be reevaluating their terms of service to squash any future shady dealings.