An interesting article here on GameIndustry.biz following the recent slump in share prices for the 4 largest western publishers:
Fortnite alone can't explain tumbling game stocks - The industry's biggest firms have lost around 13% of their value in the past week, and many are down a third in recent months
Fortnite alone can't explain tumbling game stocks - The industry's biggest firms have lost around 13% of their value in the past week, and many are down a third in recent months
One of the worst Decembers on record was followed by one of the best Januaries, so nobody really has a clue what to expect from February, but if you're an investor whose fortunes are tied up in stocks related to the games industry, the good news is that you've seen a lot of consistency. The bad news is that the consistent direction of travel has been downwards; just about every major games-related stock has spent the last four months in steady decline.
The current climate around game stocks is unusual, though. Investors are on edge and trigger-happy. Shares in all four companies have plummeted between 13% and 14% in the wake of their reports. Activision Blizzard, which won't report its results until next week, dropped 10% as well.
EA and the yet-to-report Activision Blizzard are in very different positions. I'd be tempted to say that the runaway success of RDR2 likely had more impact on the weaker-than-expected sales of Battlefield V than Fortnite did, but there's no question that EA is struggling to compete effectively with many of its core releases.
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