Yes, Pokemon GO has been out for ONLY THREE WEEKS now & hasn't even hit the 100 country milestone during this rollout. Having said that, I'm interested to see how large Nintendo is able to grow their licensing-revenues. For a 77yr old company steeped in the traditions of quality products, engineering, & engaging gaming-experiences they've NOT ONLY built a HUGE & LOYAL GLOBAL-Following, but simultaneously crafted a SPECTACULARLY IMMENSE licensing-catalogue & rich character-library.
They need to GET AFTER LEVERAGING them!!
Whereas licensing is concerned: DISNEY, with all its' businesses & ventures, makes MORE in licensing (~$26B in 2008) than ANYTHING ELSE!! It's no secret that Nintendo has held their properties WAY TOO CLOSE to the vest, on a very tight leash, & have been so console-focused that they've virtually ignored BOTH mobile & licensing-revenues. That does appear to be changing however.
Nintendo's Pokemon first debuted 20yrs ago!! Like MOST Nintendo characters & franchises, Nintendo has been mostly focused on their consoles, gaming products, variations, combinations, functionality & innovations (all surrounding the software & hardware they run on). So much so that their licensing revenues only amount to ~$54mm (per last years financials). A paltry $54mm!! Around 1 percent of overall sales, and a tiny fraction of what Disney earns from the likes of Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh, etc..
Amazingly, The Pokemon Company has generated ~$1.5B nearly EVERY YEAR since 2007 (with numbers as HIGH as $2.5B, but never with revenues any lower than $1.4B) which puts them 26th on the TOP Revenue Licensing Earners. Considering Nintendo has been so consumed with their gaming consoles & product quality that they've been dismissively neglectful whereas the licensing of their characters, IP, &/or leveraging their 4,000+ patents are concerned, it's a surprise they made that list at all!
Most experts believe Nintendo could ramp-up passive, on-going licensing-revenues to the tune of ~10x current levels & NOBODY would argue that $300mm to $600mm in licensing revenues is outrageous. Remember Disney's Consumer Products division generated $26B in 2008!!
In fact, a recent review of Nintendo's balance sheet does show evidence that a shift MAY be underway; ONE line-item JUMPS OFF the page:
Smart devices, IP related income, etc. *
It shows a QoQ increase of nearly 80% from the previous reporting period. Of course this does NOT include ANY Pokemon GO revenues (Pokemon GO debuted after the close of Q1) but it is an improvement: I'm EXPECTING this to be the start of a NEW trend.
The 2nd line-item which I found revealing relates to their cost-of-good & profit margins. Their margins have been STEADILY IMPROVING. It's very possible that this is a result of an increase in those licensing revenues. Since LR mostly represent on-going relatively passive income at little to no cost; especially when comparing the costs of licensing vs. engineering, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, promotions, employees salaries, benefits & on & on!!
So it would appear that after 77yrs Nintendo is FINALLY thinking about lengthening the leash on their MANY IPs such that they may also GO out, be fruitful & be leveraged into MASSIVE on-going passive income that may even grow to compete with Disney some day!!
$NTDOY
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