McDonald’s joins “Pokemon Go” craze hoping to catch the wave

In “Pokemon Go”, launched this month, players search for digital creatures that pop up on smartphone screens as they move through real-world locations.

Nintendo is now worth more than Sony and more than the British bank Barclays.

As of Tuesday’s close, Nintendo had added $23 billion to its market capitalisation in heavy trade since the July 6 launch of the game in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Game maker Niantic has delayed Wednesday’s planned launch of Pokemon Go in Japan after a leak of a McDonald’s Japan internal communication found its way to Internet forums, technology news site TechCrunch reported.

Commenting to Forbes, John Hanke, CEO of Niantic – the company behind the title – noted that the delay is because the companies behind the app (which include the Pokemon company and Nintendo) want to ensure that its servers will be ready to deal with the high demand that the Japan launch is expected to generate. Despite the small hiccup in Nintendo’s recent exorbitant market gains, its market cap has almost doubled since Pokemon Go’s launch on July 6.

Pokemon GO is on its way to becoming the first mobile game to break the $4 billion-per-year wall, beating Candy Crush Saga and Supercell’s Clash of Clans, according to Macquarie Research. It was announced Thursday, July 21, 2016, that McDonald’s is the first company to partner with the wildly popular smartphone game “Pokemon Go”.

TechCrunch said the sponsorship will see McDonald’s 3,000-plus fast food restaurants across Japan become “gyms”, or battlegrounds, for Pokemon collectors.

Its shares shot up another 14 percent on Tuesday.