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Nintendo Stock (NTDOY) Crashing Due to Pokemon GO Japanese Release Being Delayed

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According to a report by TechCrunch from earlier this Wednesday, Niantic Inc., the makers of the immensely popular mobile game Pokémon GO, has postponed today’s scheduled launch of the game in Japan following an email leak.

The reason for this delay is that internal communication from McDonald’s (MCD - Free Report) Japan, the game’s sponsor, detailing the launch found its way onto internet forums and photo site Imgur.

An initial morning launch time was pushed back to early afternoon as the email went viral, per TechCrunch. All parties involved eventually came to the decision to cancel today’s launch entirely due to concerns that the hype generated would overload the game’s servers.

(Also check out: “Augmented Reality Stocks to Buy After Pokémon GO”)

This delay also impacts the first “sponsored location” in the game. McDonald’s has agreed to become the first paying sponsor, turning its 3,000 stores in Japan into “Gyms” where players can battle, adding a new source of revenue to the game beyond its already lucrative in-app purchases and potentially driving real-world traffic to McDonald’s stores. If this form of revenue for both Pokémon GO and the “sponsored locations” is significant, we should expect to see many more companies joining the fray.

The success of Pokémon GO is unprecedented. Between the game’s initial release on July 11th, Nintendo stock (NTDOY - Free Report) has risen over 85%. The company’s market cap has increased over 38% during that same period, which is a value of over $6.5 billion. Furthermore, in just two weeks after its U.S. debut, the app has reportedly passed 30 million downloads and $35 million in revenue, and surpassed Twitter on active users and Facebook on engagement.

(Also check out: “The Old Guys Guide to Pokémon GO”)

Despite all of the recent success, NTDOY stock is down 12.61% as of 3:14 PM ET. Nintendo currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), but there very well may be a change in the ranking coming soon if Pokémon GO continues to be a phenomenon.

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