Now, 18 days later, a further share price surge has pushed that figure up to $15.1 billion, placing GungHo ahead of one other Japanese powerhouse Nintendo.
As detailed by Tokyo-based mobile gaming consultant Dr Serkan Toto, the rise and rise of GungHo comes after the studio's flagship the aforementioned Puzzle & Dragons hit 13 million registered users in Japan, equal to 10 percent of the country's population.
Up and up
Commentators have already branded the release the 'most lucrative videogame in the world', and GungHo has attempted to capitalise on its success in recent weeks by launching a DS port and Japan-only spin-off for iOS and Android called Puzzle & Dragons Challenge.
Increased interest in the GunHo on the Osaka Stock Exchange as a result has pushed its market cap uo to 1.54 trilion yen, equal to $15.1 billion and, most importantly, narrowly ahead of Nintendo on $15 billion.
US director of production Kenji Hosoi
It all means that, having already surpassed EA (currently boasting a market cap of $6.7 billion) and Zynga (on a comparatively modest $2.6 billion), GungHo's next target is Call of Duty behemoth Activision-Blizzard, which currently sports a market cap of $16.7 billion.
"Our focus is making great games, not the stock," US director of production Kenji Hosoi told us of the firm's success during GDC 2013.
"The worth of our company isn't the stock price, and if we start worrying about the stock price, that will change the way we work and make games."
[source: Serkan Toto]
