Nintendo Stock Price Up 9% After Pokemon Go Launch (venturebeat.com) 46
An anonymous reader writes: Following the release of the location-based mobile game Pokemon Go, Nintendo's stock is up 9 percent on the Tokyo Exchange. VentureBeat reports: "The iOS and Android app debuted Wednesday evening in the United States, and it has fans outside walking around looking for digital creatures to catch on a GPS-powered world map. The free download shot to No. 1 on the top-grossing chart in less than a day. With that level of demand, developer Niantic is having trouble keeping its servers up, and players are complaining about outages and connection issues. It comes from The Pokemon Company International, which is a separate entity that Nintendo only owns one-third of in partnership with Pokemon developers Creature Inc. and Game Freak. Having even just a piece of the Pokemon Go party should mean significant revenue for Nintendo, but this also keeps the brand relevant."
I love this game (Score:4, Funny)
Sadly, I never leave my house, so all I can capture is MissingNo.
Game servers or login servers? (Score:2)
A friend reports it's only people logging in through Nintendo's Pokemon Trainer accounts who are having problems, players using Google accounts are OK. That'd point to a problem in Nintendo's login servers rather than the Pokemon Go game servers themselves.
Re:Game servers or login servers? (Score:4, Informative)
Nah it's the game servers. I've been booted multiple times after successful login with my Google account. Sometimes you can even get into the game but it won't connect long enough to download the pokestop information and will just keep on trying to connect.
Re: Game servers or login servers? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, I don't have a Pokemon Trainer account, logging in only through a Google account, and until about 19:30 or so EDT, I literally cannot login to the game without getting a server error.
Corpses == profits? (Score:1, Interesting)
19-year old girl find dead body [buzzfeed.com] while playing Pokemon Go! Buy on Nintendo! Buy buy buy!
Also Mexican kids are dying while playing the game [ign.com]. Shares up 9%! Buy buy buy!
Re: (Score:2)
Final form, perhaps?
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Its the Darwin award in action.
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Yeah, Niantic may need to implement the speedlock/sandbox they have with Ingress, especially since several interactions require even more attention than "tap, hack". I can confidently hack portals in Ingress while driving (under 35 mph) with no fear of losing control. Needing to spin a pic at a Pokestop is slightly more involved. Needing to toss Pokeballs or battle at a gym is *way* too involved to do while driving...
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What about passengers in the car or train?
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Unlike Ingress, this is *not* a game I'd attempt while driving, at least capturing Pokemon or attacking gyms. Getting gear from the Pokestops is easy enough to do, but the rest requires way more concentration which isn't conducive to vehicular play...
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If you're playing any game while driving then your license should be revoked permanently.
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They'll handle it the way they have with Ingress the past 3 years. This isn't Niantic's first game, and all the shit in pokemon go is based on locations in Ingress.
Re: How long until the cheaters take over? (Score:2)
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Yeah, some people where I work really want to have PvP, but they don't play Ingress, so haven't seen the, um, drama associated with COMM, interactions, Intel maps, etc. I keep telling them that it's a Really Bad Idea, because even though they're adults and want to battle coworkers, there are so many bad, bad things that'll happen.
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The way the system works is that the first time you take an action, it creates a virtual sphere that grows at a certain rate (something like 15 miles per hour?). If you take any actions outside of that sphere, then you get locked out for 15 to 30 minutes.
So catching a flight isn't an issue, the sphere will have expired by the time you land. Driving on the interstate could potentially be problematic if you hit a portal, speed to another place, and then hit another portal within 15 minutes.
The common case tha
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The speed bubble is ~35 mph, with a 30 minute timeout. That being said, I've been on flights with wifi, locked into the departing airport, and it's taken an hour or more to get out of the sandbox. Sucked transferring at DIA to BWI and driving home. Jitter really shouldn't play into it for more than a couple of minutes with close portals. Cell tower drift, on the other hand, while helping with Trekker, can screw you on a desk portal for a while (I've drifted 10s of km away sometimes).
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I found a portal in ingress that was most easily accessed by charging at a brick wall, then taking a dive at the last moment and curling up around the phone. It loses GPS, carries on extrapolating, and you can 'slide' on past the brick wall and travel just far enough to reach the portal on the other side.
I don't play Ingress any more.
Also known as... (Score:1)
Re: Also known as... (Score:1)
Wasn't this the Slashdot consensus (Score:2)
Control = cash flow (Score:1)
Remember that most games on Nintendo's stuff are not written by Nintendo.
If they are only selling their in-house stuff on another platform it would be a drop in the bucket.
(Furious typing) (Score:2)
Pokemon Go! (To Church) (Score:3)
Maybe this will finally convert those heathen millennials [kotaku.com].