The launch of highly-anticipated smartphone game Pokemon Go has given Nintendo its biggest weekly share price leap in over 30 years, jumping over 70% and increasing Nintendo’s market value by $17 billion in just over a week.

Until recently, Nintendo had maintained that its main focus was on its consoles, rather than third party platforms. The success of Pokemon Go will bolster many vocal shareholders’ opinion that Nintendo needs to increase its presence in the mobile game market.

Seth Fischer, founder and chief investment officer at Nintendo investor Oasis Management, commented: "I hope they will now understand the power of smartphones. And as a result, I hope this means there is a whole change in strategy.

"My next focus with Nintendo is for them to focus on monetizing the rest of their 4,000 patents for mobile gaming, multi-player gaming, et cetera. I think they could be making 30 to 60 billion yen ($290 million to $570 million) annually from licensing."

The augmented reality game is now available in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, although ongoing server issues have caused frustration amongst players.

The game was developed by the Pokemon Company, which is 32% owned by Nintendo, along with Google spin-off Niantic Inc.  The Pokémon Company, Google and Nintendo have invested up to $30 million in Niantic to develop Pokemon Go.

The first Pokemon game launched in 1998, becoming a surprise hit in America and the handheld version sold more than 200 million copies.