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It鈥檚 a win for Nintendo: Here鈥檚 how Nintendo is making a comeback by investing in smart partnerships

It鈥檚 your classic surge and purge. The New Big Thing drops, dominates and then, once every channel becomes saturated by analysis and analogy, the tide turns and in comes a new wave of counter-programming.

Pikachu, we hardly knew you. Just kidding. Fear not, little guy, you will live long and experience popularity and dissection for years to come. Because the partnerships behind your breakout are likely not planning to close up shop anytime soon. 聽This article from Contently wonders if 鈥淧ok茅mon can survive until August?鈥� and, hyperbole aside, they make excellent points about the obvious gaps in the experience, including but limited to: the lack of multi-player play, a trading network, chat or push alerts. These are all expected features in mobile gaming and developers聽will have to catch up quick.聽And they will.

Niantic Labs began as an internal startup at Google, helmed by John Hanke, whose company, Keyhole, was acquired in 2004 and became the jump-off for Google Earth. In 2014, when Google reorganized as Alphabet, Niantic was then spun out independently. After that, it raised $20 million from Google,聽Nintendo and The Pok茅mon Company (of which Nintendo owns 32%).聽Nintendo is going to make a lot of money from Pok茅mon Go. But. That鈥檚 not the big win here.

Just two weeks after the launch, . That鈥檚 a jump of more than 50%. But. That鈥檚 not the big win here.

The big win is a mic drop entry into the global mobile gaming market the company has spurned for years.聽Nintendo鈥檚 baffling resistance to a a mobile move has hurt in the last decade. Life is lived on the go鈥攁nd on smart phones鈥攕o it was noteworthy when, last year, the company聽 with mobile game developer DeNA.聽This partnership and the stake in Niantic, signal鈥攊n a big way鈥擭intendo鈥檚 intentions. They鈥檝e effectively introduced augmented realty to the masses.聽That鈥檚 an Apple-level move from a company few have thought about in聽the ten years since its last big release, the Wii home-gaming console, which was not unlike Pok茅mon Go, actually. It was interactive and got people off the couch. Pok茅mon takes it an further and gets them out into the world.

So, while Nintendo may not be the winner in actual dollars made, it will surely benefit in other ways. The company鈥檚 value doubled within a week of the launch. This is Nintendo鈥檚 first play at mobile and it is, undeniably, a success.聽The numbers are mind-boggling: 20 million daily users; spending more time on the app than on Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder and 暗黑网 combined; over $1 million in-app purchased daily and at least one report of a Vaporeon spotted on Mars during the wedding of two crazy kids who met at a popular Pok茅spot in聽Sydney*.

Nintendo very quickly followed Pok茅mon Go鈥檚 release with news of , it鈥檚 reworked gaming console due out in time for holiday wish lists and loaded with 鈥榗lassics鈥� like Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Pac Man and The Legend of Zelda. They鈥檝e got brand equity, cutting-edge software covered with partnerships, they鈥檝e adapted their well-known hardware for re-entry and Pok茅mon Go cash should keep them afloat for a while. Nintendo is suddenly in great shape to lead AR mobile gaming. It鈥檚 a win for Nintendo.

*didn鈥檛 happen