Welcome to "Game On," The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES: This week's major release is Electronic Arts' (EA) latest war shooter "Battlefield V," the latest in the company's long-running "Battlefield" franchise. The game launches today on PC, Xbox One (MSFT), and PlayStation 4 (SNE).
SONY TO MISS E3: According to media reports, Sony intends to skip next year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, abandoning its traditional booth and press conference. The moves comes after the company skipped this year's PlayStation Experience, an event that it held every year from 2014 to 2017. After the news broke, Microsoft and Nintendo (NTDOY) said that they are still committed to next year's E3, Variety reported last Friday. Phil Spencer, executive VP of gaming at Microsoft, said that "E3 is an incredible platform to showcase the vibrancy and creativity of the video game industry," while Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said that "E3 is an outstanding opportunity for us to share new games and experiences with fans and business partners from across the globe," according to Variety.
'SPYRO' U.K. SALES: According to Eurogamer, Activision's (ATVI) "Spyro Reignited Trilogy" sold more physical copies in its launch week last week in the U.K., beating out physical launch sales of Bethesda's "Fallout 76," Nintendo's "Pokemon Let's Go! Pikachu" and "Let's Go! Eevee," and Warner Bros. Interactive's (T) "Hitman 2." Of note, "Spyro" was able to outsell each individual new "Pokemon" game, as the total U.K. physical sales of both "Pikachu" and "Eevee" combined surpassed all other launch games for the week, the report said.
SUNTRUST CUTS ATVI TARGET: Last Thursday, SunTrust analyst Matthew Thornton cut his price target on Activision Blizzard to $65 from $81 after its third quarter earnings miss as well as in reflection of the multiple compression for its comparables. Thornton, however, maintained his Buy rating on the stock, saying that multiples can expand over the next 12 months once the company gets through the "elevated uncertainty" surrounding its fourth quarter results and investor focus shifts to 2020 when growth can accelerate. The analyst added that while the company's Q3 results were weighed down by the underperformance of "Destiny 2," the performance of the game maker's "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" has units, players, and hours tracking above "Black Ops 3."
Electronic Arts
-0.09 (-0.11%)
Microsoft
-1.97 (-1.88%)
Symbol now SONY
-1.12 (-2.20%)
Nintendo
+ (+0.00%)
acquired by MSFT
+0.63 (+1.28%)
AT&T
-0.55 (-1.81%)